Black Dreams Eternal
by Priest Li Xiang
Summary: The Emperor of the Known Worlds knows who his enemies are, and who his allies are. Though perhaps his enemies are a bit stronger than he supposed... ch2: Sora is out for vengence against Kabuto.
1. dreams 00

Black Dreams Eternal... this was posted up here once, but I took it down because I was cleaning things up, and I hadn't put chapter one up. This is the prologue by the way. It's a roleplay game, but it's a Kingdom Hearts roleplay game, which means that it's perfect from crossovers. Which is a good thing, considering the cast of characters it has. 

BDE is meant to be played and written like a story, and I am a mean Game Master if you don't.

* * *

**Black Dreams Eternal : Prologue  
**Chapter written by: Tidus Li Xiang, Yasha Kaya, and Sora Crys

* * *

His head hit the table top with a thud-- and he imagined that the people around him could hear it echoing hollowly as he did so. Now, normally the young man wasn't quite so harsh with himself, but he felt he had every right to be like this.

He was in pain.

It was the worst pain he'd ever been in-- or at least, he currently thought it was the worst pain he had ever been in, because he couldn't think of a situation where he hadn't hurt so damned much. No idea why he hurt like this, either; because a bare month ago there hadn't been this pain...

But then, a month ago, he hadn't been here, had he? He had been in the End of Days-- a place that, even just thinking about it, could send a chill of fear down a man's back. Most assuredly not somewhere someone wanted to be.

But he had been. He'd been there for years, and now he was back. And now he was in pain.

"Good gods," Tidus whimpered, lifting his head only to bring it down on the wooden cafe table as hard as he could in an attempt to overpower the pain in his chest, "This hurts..."

He had been hoping that someone here, in this town could help him. Or at least, explain why his chest pulsed so painfully, sending tremors of pain through his body that had taken him nearly three weeks to learn how to focus past in order to even move.

And now, here he was... all alone. All by himself, at a table in Traverse Town, wondering what he was to do next.

A rhythmic clicking noise was heard across the 1st District's Square, as huge scaled draconic feet lazily made their way across the pavement. While wide, childish gold eyes stared at all the lights in wonder. The figure's upper half looked almost human, minus the claws and wings. Her lower half was completely covered in crimson red scales, and taloned dragon feet.

She giggled softly to herself, doing an odd hopping act with her huge scaly legs and feet to race across the square. Clearing the steps with one powerful leap of her draconic legs, she looked around the square again from the better view point, 'oooo'ing in slight awe at all the flashing neon signs.

But the childish look soon faded when she realized she was almost the only person there... Her golden orbs blinked at a blond laying next to a table, something was funny about him. A second later it clicked, and she remember the anklet tightly fastened around her right scaled ankle. The teen, she couldn't sense a heart in him.

Curious, she half-walked, half-waddled over to the table. He seemed to be in a great deal of physical pain and mental anguish...

And completely ignoring this, she grabbed him by the shoulders with both her oversized taloned hands.

"HI!!"

"Gah!" Tidus' eyes went wide as he was spun away from his attempts to cause himself a concussion, and found himself blinking up into the bright gold eyes of his... attacker? Well, she wasn't really attacking him, so he wasn't going to consider her an attacker.

Although... Tidus didn't know what to think as he took in the appearance of the half dragon girl who was manhandling him. She looked almost like one of his brethren... but she couldn't possibly be one of them; first off she was smiling to widely, and secondly she didn't feel like one of them.

She felt... similar, but not the same. Tidus relaxed slightly. Not a Sinspawn, then.

However, his relaxing from battle-state meant that the pain he'd been trying to fight off only came raging back to him, and he clutched at his chest in pain, barely managing a confused, "Uh... hi..." through it.

Dammit, he was really starting to hate this pain.

The draconic girl gave a fanged grin as the boy turned around, but opposite to her expectations, didn't run away screaming bloody murder. He did however, kneel over clutching his chest in pain. Her face went blank as she blinked for a minute.

The girl's grin returned, but wasn't as overwhelming this time, when she re-realized the problem. Her first thought that he didn't have a heart was wrong, he did.

And that was the problem.

She tilted her head curiously, crouching down oddly with her dragon-like legs to be more on a even level with the kneeling teen, her wings outstretched somewhat to help her keep balance. She very gently poked his chest with one huge claw.

"You, need a Behälter." she proclaimed with a slightly more knowledgeable tone then one would expect, seeing her previous actions.

Gently or not, when she poked his chest, her claw managed to tear his shirt somewhat. If he wasn't in as much pain as he happened to be in, he might have been angry about the damage to his brand new shirt, however pain seemed to be a big thing with him right now.

"Behälter...?" the word was awkward in his mouth, not exactly one he'd spoken before, and it was harder yet to get the strange word out through the pain. Thinking through pain had never exactly been one of his better skills, "...what's that?"

Maybe it was a medicine? Something to get rid of the pain that had plagued him for nearly a month now.

Or maybe it was a toy. How could he possibly know, any ways? The 'advice' had come from a strange half-dragon girl kneeling in front of him on the stone pavement of the roads of Traverse Town, who's eyes sparkled with slightly muted, childish glee.

He was really hoping it was medicine.

The dragon-girl nodded when the teen repeated the word she had spoken, and grinned smugly when he asked what it meant. She hopped backwards from him, and straightened back up to her normal height. Flapping both wings out for balance, she precariously lifted her right taloned foot, and tapped it with her claws.

"My Behälter. Keeps the heart near, and the pain away.."

The girl lowered her crimson scaled leg back down, hopping back over to the blond again. She poked his chest again, but this time with the smooth backside of her claw.

"Your heart hurts, 'cause it can't live in you anymore, but it hurts to have it away too... That's why you need a Behälter!"

As soon as her serious speech ended, she grinned wolfishly at him. "See see?" She slowly stood up straight again, and held out a clawed hand. "I'm Yasha!", she giggled.

It... made a strange sort of sense, what Yasha was saying. It had been four years since he had actually carried his Heart within him; living in the End of Days generally meant that one had had their Heart taken from them. The four-- well, three, as technically he'd lived the majority of the fourth year in Spira-- years he'd lived there meant that his body had adapted to that climate.

"So... uh..." focusing through the pain was harder now that he had a possibility of getting away from it, "Where do you get one of these... Behälter thingies?"

Okay, so he probably shouldn't have added that 'thingies' on the end, but quite frankly, he still didn't have any idea what it was. He supposed, that if it was an anklet, like she had, then he could always hide it in his boots...

Oh, right, manners. She'd said her name, so he should say his, right?

"Tidus... my name's Tidus," and the blonde grinned the best he could through the pain.

Yasha smiled brightly. "Hullo Tidus!" She said happily, as no one had ever told them her name before, and the thought of one doing so made her bubbly. She blinked when he asked how to get a Behälter, and thoughtfully looked upwards. "Umm... Weeellllll..."

Yasha rocked from side to side, digging her claws in between the cracks in the stone. "You don't really...'get' one...you just kinda... 'make' one, yeah." She nodded to reinforce her own statement.

"You just... um.. stick your heart... in something." She nodded absently again, and waved to a shiny looking blue-ish sword, which was resting on a table next to the one Tidus had been attempting to kill himself with.

"Like that sword! It can be anything solid, I think.. just place your heart within it, okie?" She smiled again, her fangs poking out slightly.

Tidus blinked a few times.

Well. That seemed... relatively easy. Except... how did one remove one's own Heart? He wasn't exactly a Heartless... he might have been, at one point, but that kinda got trashed when he was all but kidnapped by Sin.

Sinspawn couldn't remove the metaphysical Heart that was more like a soul, than the 'heart' that came to mind with the use of the word. The Heart wasn't a physical part of the body, after all.

Although, given the way it hurt, maybe he should revise that statement.

In any case, he managed to pull himself upright enough to heft the Brotherhood off the other table. It was a good enough idea, putting his Heart in the sword-- he did take it everywhere, after all.

"So, uh... how do I do that, Yasha?" he frowned in confusion, "How do I put my Heart in my sword?"

Yasha tilted her head to a side for another minute, thinking. She finally shook her head, clicking her claws together. "I know ONE way of doing it....".

Before Tidus could reply, Yasha leapt forward and thrust her claws though his chest. She latched onto a very familiar feeling within him and yanked hard on it, pulling his Heart right out of his own body. There wasn't any marking left that she had even touched him, much less pierced his skin.

A sparking ruby red Heart floated within the cage Yasha made around it with her claws. She leaned over towards the sword Tidus was holding, and flicked his fingers out of the way. She made a small crack in the 'cage', pushing the Heart into the handle of the blade.

It finally disappeared into the cold metal with a last sparkle of light, and Yasha doubled over, panting, Keeping a Heart from floating away once it was out of a body was very difficult, and draining..

"..There."

Tidus gave a choked off cry as he felt her claws go through his body, disappearing into his chest. Eyes wide, he was frozen to the spot, wondering if the dragon-girl had just killed him...

Then she had removed her hands, and he could see the crimson glow of what he assumed to be his Heart-- he had seen it twice before, so he was pretty sure that the glow came from his Heart-- as she cradled it.

The pain was gone.

The thought shocked him, and he found himself just blinking in surprise as Yasha brushed limp fingers off of his sword. Curiously, he watched her push his Heart into the blade, and distantly realized that she was making him one of those "Behälter"... things.

Upon this realization, he found himself, surprisingly, not dead. Weren't you supposed to die when your Heart was taken, in this realm? How... curious.

Although, it might have had something to do with being Sinspawn, or even with the Behälter, itself. Either way, he wasn't dead, the pain was gone, and Yasha looked like she had seen better days.

"...Thanks," he murmured, hefting his sword and sliding it back into the straps across his back. There was a strange warmth in his chest, unlike the burning and the pain that had come from his Heart physically being there.

Shaking his head, he set his hand lightly on Yasha's shoulder, careful about touching her wing. He didn't know if it was like a butterfly's or a bird's, and didn't really want to cause her any damage, when she'd just helped him.

"Hey, you okay, Yasha?"

Yasha gasped quietly, her breathe coming in short bursts. She managed to look up with a tired smile when Tidus laid a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't ever remember someone caring about her, it was a very nice feeling, being cared for...

"I'm...I'm alright!.. It's just hard to do that, Heartless are just supposed to absorb a Heart, not move it... or transfer it. Hearts are very unstable out of a body, so you have to give them some of your energy... or they'll collapse..."

Yasha shrugged lightly, stretching her wings out as she pushed herself back up. "I'll be okay in a little bit, just gotta regain my strength." She spun around on her hind claw and beamed to Tidus.

"Are you Okay now? Can I come with you? I'm-a-bit-lost-and-I-don't-know-where-to-go-and-I-don't-know-anyone-and-it's-not-really-fun-being-all-alone-is-it?" She managed to blurt out the last part in one whole, jumbled, completely incoherent sentence.

"Uh..." he blinked several times, trying to make out what, exactly, she'd just said, before screeching to a stop on the first part of her response.

"You... you're a Heartless?" He was rather of the opinion that such a thing was impossible-- she hardly looked like a Heartless! But then, he didn't really look like a Sinspawn, did he? And who was he to say he was perfectly unique in the multiverse? There were a lot of worlds out there...

Shaking his head, he banished any negative thoughts. So what if she was a Heartless? She'd just helped him, and that made her A-OK in his books!

"Sure, you can come with me!" his mouth spoke without him, and he mentally scratched his head. Where had that come from? Casting his mind back over the rest of the admittedly short conversation, he came to the conclusion that his subconscious had decoded her words and decided to answer for him while he wasn't paying attention.

It wasn't that unusual of a situation, he thought with the tiniest of sighs. It actually happened quite frequently. Sometimes, that was a good thing.

Yasha's golden orbs widened to an impossible size. "REALLY?!" She cried happily, and proceeded to jump up and flap her wings blithely. "YAAAAY!!" she squealed childishly, hopping around in some sort of odd-looking dance of sorts.

Yasha finally landed particularly hard back on the stone, and started flapping her wings with excitement, babbling cheerfully. "This is really really great great great! You're my friend now! I don't remember having any friends before, so you're my first, this is really really great great great! I don't ever remember being this happy before, this is really really great great great!"

Yasha then turned around back to Tidus, and grinning a more then just a little unsettlingly, did an action that can be described with only one word, she glomped him. "THAAAANK YOOOUUU!!!"

"Ack!" was about the only thing Tidus managed to get out of his lungs as the draconic and hyper one glomped him with the force of a semi-trailer going off the side of a cliff at a hundred miles per hour. Or, at least, that's what he would have thought it similar to if the island born youth even knew what a semi-trailer was.

Trying to breath was becoming something of a problem, so he did the only thing he knew how to, in order to survive in such situations.

He took a tip from his days as a blitzer and held his breath. He could do this for ten minutes-- longer, if need be. It certainly helped avoiding suffocating to death in the girl's grasp.

It was no wonder she'd never had friends before, some distant part of his mind thought, although not cruelly. Her hugs might have driven them away.

He was really hoping she'd let go soon. Or for someone to come along and inform her that she was crushing his spine with her hug.

The doors to the first distract of Traverse Town were pushed open as a young man stepped into the square. A crown of chocolate brown spikes went in all directions from his head, a little longer and wilder from what they had been so many years ago. The brunette surveyed the square with tired sapphire eyes, forcing a smile onto his tanned face as he began to walk, the various chains hanging from his clothes jingling as he walked.

How long had it been since they'd closed the door? A day, a few weeks, months? How long had it been since he'd closed the door on his best friend? How long had it been since he'd held her hand? How long? He wasn't so sure anymore. He wasn't sure of much of anything anymore. With a sigh the brunette flopped down onto a bench as he waited for his two companions to get back from getting food, his smile shifting to an empty look, so foreign on his features.

It didn't really make sense, once they sealed Kingdom Hearts, traveling to other worlds should have been impossible, yet for the past few weeks they had been traveling other worlds in search of Riku and King Mickey. Didn't that mean the Heartless should be able to travel to other worlds once again? But aside from the occasional rogue Heartless, none had bothered them. The teen supposed he should consider that a good thing, but the lack of the shadow's made him uneasy.

Another thing that made him uneasy was he had heard that many people whom had their hearts returned to them still didn't become fully human, they became a sort of half-heartless half-human, and they had been without their heart for so long it hurt them to have it within them. But this made him feel more guilty then nervous. He should have sealed Kingdom Hearts faster, should have done so many things he hadn't done. Every person he saw with a "Heart Behälter" as they called them, every person who remained with heartless features, every one of them seemed to represent his failures.

"Sora, don't ever change." She had said.

A broken smile spread over the teens face, a bitter, fragmented version of the real thing. "Kairi...what would you think of me now?"

He looked around the square, and it was only by chance that he saw them. A blonde suddenly being tackled by a dragon like girl. How odd...the girl greatly resembled a Wyvern.

Wait...a WYVERN!?

The brunette jumped to his feet, black sneakers clicking against the stones as he ran over to the two. He summoned a key-shaped weapon into his right hand, gripping the dark blue handle.

"Hey, you! Get off him!" The brunette commanded, sapphire eyes narrowing.

It was then that he got a good look at the teen the Wyvern-girl was glomping. Sapphire eyes widened and he almost dropped his weapon.

"T-TIDUS!?"

Managing to get out of Yasha's grip wasn't the easiest thing to do in the world, but at least she'd loosened her grip slightly when Sora had made his rather abrupt appearance. The blonde blinked at the friend that he hadn't seen in four years.

Well... he hadn't exactly seen any of the other people from Destiny Islands in four years, the alternate versions of Wakka and his father not being included. Still... this was Sora. One of his best buddies!

Tidus grinned a bit lopsidedly at the other boy, "Er, hey Sora! Long time no see!"

Yasha blinked surprised as someone shouted something behind her, loosening her grip somewhat.

"Er, hey Sora! Long time no see!"

Yasha blinked again, still looking confused when Tidus spoke. She let go and hit the ground with a thud, landing on her huge scaled feet easily. She hopped around to look at this 'Sora', it was someone Tidus knew well and liked, so they had to be a good person, right?

Yasha only saw one thing, and only had to see that one thing to immediately recognize the person and react. Her eyes went as wide as dinner plates when she spotted several soft brown spikes, that some people might actually consider to be hair.

"YUMMY HAAAIIIR!!!!!"

There was about half a millisecond's time between Yasha's gleeful cry, and her tackling the spiky hair mass to the floor.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"GACK!" Sora cried as he was Kamikaze tackled with about one hundred pounds of dragon girl and knocked to the floor, the keyblade ending up about a yard or so away.

He gagged as he attempted to pry the girl from his waist. Unfortunately for the brunette, she had an iron grip, or something like that.

"Miss....you're crushing my lungs..." He informed her in a strangled voice.

Tidus blinked, slightly stunned by Yasha's sudden attack on his friend, then grinned brightly. At least he wasn't the only one who had to suffer through Yasha's hugs from hell. But...

"Yummy hair?" that brought a few snickers out of the blonde boy, "Cute nickname, Sora. Where'd you manage to pick that one up?"

He'd heard some of Riku's nicknames for the brown haired boy, and they had been rather amusing, but this was stranger than any of those. Although, he'd doubt he'd use it, since he didn't particularly want to find out what was so 'yummy' about Sora's gel-soaked hair.

"Hey, Yasha, I think you're about to kill my friend with that hug."

Yasha continued squealing with delight, until she heard Tidus comment she was killing the spiky haired one. She fell off, jumping back to her huge taloned feet, performing a back flip with her wings outstretched, before hopping around Sora.

"Yay yay yay! I thought Yummy Hair went away a long long time ago!" She pounced down on the still-dazed lad, giving him a vicious hug before hopping back to her feet and repeating the odd hyper dance from before.

"I thought Yummy Hair diieeed! I'm so glad Yummy Hair's okie-okie!" She finally stopped moving at the speed of a whirlwind, standing above Sora, clicking her talons and flapping her wings in un-concealed excitement.

"If Yummy Hair is okie-okie, then we've still got a shot at this!" She cried out in earnest happiness. She scooped up the Keyblade with her claws, and handed it back to the Keyblade Master, smiling brightly.

"I'm Yasha! You don't remember me, but me so so glad you okaay! The worlds still need a hero, and the Key a Wielder!"

Sora blinked slowly, attempting to process everything the dragon-girl had said. It didn't help that she'd spoken it all a mile a minute either.

'I THINK she said something to me..'

He looked down at the keyblade the girl had tossed to him, before looking back up at her, completely dumb-founded.

Yummy Hair? What the heck?

"Huh? Er...how do you know me?" Sora asked, raising an eyebrow. "And...uhhh...What are you talking about?"

Yasha clashed her claws together, in what was probably an attempt at clapping, but looked much more frightening.

"From Hollow Bastion! I was the Wyvern that kept knocking you off the castle!" Yasha said cheerfully, "Remember? The one that kept head-butting you right off that ledge?"

She spun around on her hind talons, giggling. "What am I talking about? What am I talking about! I'm talking about it! Your journey hasn't ended, because it's barely begun! The Prophecy, Keyblade Wielder, the Prophecy!!".

She leaped up to the top of the stairs again, and turned to face them. Her wings were completely outstretched, and she actually looked serious for once, making an over-all impressive appearance. "Remember, you are the one that will open the door to the Light.."

There was only one word to describe Tidus at that moment.

Confused.

"Prophecy?" he wondered, brows dipping in confusion as something within hummed, seemingly mocking him by saying 'I know something you don't know'. But why would he know, but not know, something? Argh, this was confusing him.

So was this whole Keyblade thing. It wasn't like he knew what had been going on in this realm for the past four years, so he had an excuse to be behind the times.

The last time 'fate' and 'destiny' had been brought into an equation involving Tidus he'd ended up a Sinspawn. Quite frankly, he'd like not to have to go through such a change again, although the adventure had been fun...

"Sora, what the hell is Yasha talking about? What's this prophecy deal?"

Now, Sora's reaction to Yasha's first response would be "You were REALLY annoying, you know that!?" But that was before he heard her second response. After that, all feelings of annoyance were cast aside, to be replaced with feelings of dread, deja-vu, joy, fear, and something else....something he couldn't quite place.

The journey he had fought so hard in and grown so weary of, no where near over. So there was more ahead? Would it ever end? The prophecy, the one from his dreams....

"The prophecy..." Sora murmured, a far away look in his sapphire eyes.

"The closer you get to the light..."

"Sora, don't ever change..."

"The greater your shadow becomes."

"Falling...falling...into darkness..."

"Keep your light burning strong."

"They'll keep on coming at you, so long as you continue to weld the keyblade."

"And don't forget..."

"Every Heart return to darkness!"

"You hold the mightiest weapon of all."

"I don't need a weapon, my friends are my power!"

"Remember, you are the one that will open the door to the Light.." The voice from his dream? Yasha? Kairi? Riku? Himself?

Sora's eyes shot open, the teen unaware of when he had closed them, nor aware that Tidus had spoken to him, or that he'd been staring into space murmuring for the past two minutes.

"What about the prophecy?" He asked.

Yasha sighed dismally at Sora's question, her wings falling down low, the taloned tips lightly touching the ground.

"I...I don't really know..." She made a noise akin to a whimper, "There's so much I can't remember... So very much, I lost so much important knowledge..."

Yasha shook her head, pulling her wings back close, and jumped back down to the square again, her golden orbs peering at Sora curiously. "But, I think, the Heartless will prove not to be the true enemy..".

The dragon-girl giggled slightly, gently rocking on her claws again. Her eyes looked glossy, and her head was raised to look at the stars above them.

"And I think... there'll be a chance.. to make it all better, a chance. Remember it and never lose it.. And you'll get back all you've lost, and all you've fought so hard to try and attain.."

"Uh... guys?" But Yasha kept talking over Tidus' worried look. Something about the Heartless not being the true enemy, but really, that wasn't what he was worried about right now.

No, he was more worried about that strange... thing... glowing in the middle of Traverse Town's first district. All his questions about this prophecy, as well as Yasha and Sora's strange conversation fled his mind as his eyes locked on the thing. A chill ran down his back, and he literally had to fight to keep his less-than-human side from bursting fully free.

Threats to his safety generally had him going full Sinspawn, and he would really rather avoid destroying yet another set of clothing by shifting into a form he wasn't all that familiar with. Instincts had a bad habit of taking over his mind at that point.

Besides, Tidus preferred his human form to his Sinspawn form.

"Guys," Tidus growled, reaching for the Brotherhood. No answer, "Guys!" he barked, finally catching their attention, "We've got trouble."

The glowing thing was not a glowing thing anymore.

It had gained form-- humanoid, but not completely, like Yasha. It was tall, about twelve feet in height, and lanky, reminding Tidus of a scarecrow. Shadows curled about it's form, obscuring the body from sight, but golden eyes glowed from the darkness of it's face.

A Heartless.

Yasha jumped a little, giving a small, startled squawk when Tidus screamed at her from behind her. She whirled around to face him, then turned again to see what he was looking at. She again did something between a screeching hawk, and a dragon's roar, upon noticing the strange dark being.

Yasha hissed loudly at the other Heartless, her golden eyes flashing with rage. She flapped out her wings to their full size, and brought up her huge clawed hands in front of her, falling smoothly into a battle stance.

"And remember, just 'cause they might not be the true problem, doesn't mean they aren't the current one!"

Sora's eyes grew wide as the Heartless rose from the ground, golden orbs seeming to stare right through him. His fist clenched around the keyblade handle.

"But...Kingdom Hearts is sealed! They shouldn't be able to reappear…" Sora gasped.

The smoke around the Heartless cleared, revealing their more humanoid form, antenna swept back behind their heads, hanging almost to their torso. They clicked their claws together, as if anticipating the battle ahead.

Sora's eyes narrowed and he brought the keyblade into attack position, shifting into his battle stance. "Well..." He began, a grim smile appearing on his face. "Lets take care of the current problem then, ne?"

Tidus gave his friend a tight-lipped grin, "Ya gotta remember, Sora-- there's always a backdoor." None the less, Tidus gripped the hilt of the Brotherhood a little bit tighter, feeling the warmth of his Heart within the weapon.

It had been awhile, he thought, before launching himself at the shadowy form before them his furisode swinging around him in a slightly distracting manor, since he'd physically fought someone or something.

Well... Heartless had to be easier to beat when they weren't in the End of Days right?

His blade swung down and through the Heartless-- damage caused, but none visible. He hated foes like that.

The shadow-beast twisted around him, going for the most obvious target-- the one holding the Keyblade.

Tidus blinked in shock for a moment, when he was completely ignored in favor of his brown haired friend, "...the hell...?"

Sora cocked a brow at the Heartless jumped towards him, loping along in a graceful way compared to their less humanoid cousins. His black gloved hands tightened around the handle of the keyblade.

How long since the last time he'd fought these things? Same as the closing of the door's date, he had no idea. He just knew it had been awhile. Not that it mattered.

Time seemed to slow, the shadow beasts stopping, almost as if waiting, their golden eyes unblinking and emotionless as two orbs of sapphire stared back.

Sora snorted slightly. "Fools."

Then it all broke lose, the Heartless jumping forward and the keyblade slicing cleanly through the air to meet them. Several more Heartless were already forming from the ground as the first of their brethren vanished in inky black smoke.

Sora pivoted on one foot, spinning to meet his next set of attackers and bringing up the keyblade to parry the duel set of claws aiming for his chest, then pushing them back and slashing the keyblade down, then dodge rolling over the cobblestone street to come back to his feet and bring the keyblade down on another shadow, then stepping past another strike and going through the swarms like a whirlwind of man and steel, if steel was what the keyblade was made of. He relied on his old combos, left, right, up, down, stab! Left, right, up, down stab!

He dipped under yet another set of claws and winced as what felt like three icy daggers tore into his back. He twisted around and struck his attacker, finally slowing to a stop as he whipped some sweat from his brow.

Suddenly more pools of darkness appeared around him and he let out a small cry of alarm as several icy claws slashed at his unprotected flank. He twisted to fend them off. The leg he was pivoting on, however, was awkwardly bent, making turning a bit harder. He noted this with a wince of discomfort and stepped forward with the other leg to try and pivot. This had taken several seconds, however, and by this time many Heartless were swarming him, slashing at his arms and legs and reaching for the heart of keyblade master that they sought.

Sora grit his teeth and shut his eyes tightly. "ARS..." He began to glow shades of gold and red. Some Heartless moved back. Most stupidly continued.

"ARCANUM!" Sora howled, rearing back and bringing down a flurry of blows upon the Heartless attacking him, golden energy streaming from him and the keyblade, becoming a crimson and gold hurricane of blows.

The energy eventually wore off and Sora slid to a stop, breathing heavily as the crimson and gold aura vanished. Clouds of inky black were all that remained after the attack. Sora let out a breath and stood, looking around the first distract to see what had happened with Tidus and Yasha.

Tidus had been watching, with a fair amount of awe, as Sora unleashed his attack on the Heartless. Even when he had been on Spira, he hadn't seen anything quite like it-- and that was saying something.

He couldn't believe that this was Sora-- the boy that, four years ago, was pretty much his equal in battle. Were they still equal? He knew he'd improved some-- well, a lot-- from his journey with Yuna and the others, but still... his fingers clenched around his sword, and he winced as one of the arriving Heartless raked Sora's back.

Yet he did not move, still stunned into inaction by his friend's viciousness-- at least, he didn't move until claws sunk through his leg and he gave a short howl of pain. Only then did he realize that he, too, had been surrounded by Heartless, and there was no more time to think. Now was the time for action.

"Heh," he grinned, although 'grin' was probably too nice of a word to be used for the bearing of his lengthening teeth. Beneath his skin, he felt Sin's power settle, confident that this battle would not cause any harm to one of it's few remaining hosts, and Tidus launched himself into a whirlwind of strikes. Left, right, parry, strike, downwards slash, followed by a vertical strike to catch one beneath the chin, and force him into a flip to get more room. Again he struck, a foot lashing out to catch one off guard before bringing the blade around in a horizontal strike from right to left.

The familiarity of the battle was nice, but taxing as he realized that it had been far to long since he had battled something enmass like this.

Still, he was not deterred, slashing through one enemy, and using the momentum of his blade to continue through the next. When one got to close, he would again bounce into the flip that had been his signature move as a child. He rained blows down, trying to get out from being in the center of the attacks, and towards the edge, paving a way of fading smoke and shadows as Heartless after Heartless were mauled and destroyed.

It took longer than he wanted to, in order to escape the mass of enemies, but certainly not all that long to someone who could have been watching. He could hear Sora's voice, calling out some attack or another, but he wasn't focused on that. He was focused on destroying the Heartless that remained before him. Amazingly enough, no others were coming up out of the ground, or appearing randomly. No, there was now a set limit, and quite frankly, he was damn glad for that.

Tidus' eyes danced, positioning himself for his own attack, "Energy Rain!"

Damn, he was thankful for his adventures on Spira, were his thoughts as he unleashed the attack, destroying what Heartless remained before him, but somehow, a sinking feeling rippled through him. Somehow, he just knew the powerful attacks and abilities he had uncovered in Spira were not going to be enough.

Sighing, he let the Brotherhood drop, though he didn't release the hilt and the warmth it spread through his hand. He lifted his other hand, catching the bottom of his furisode with a gesture of long practice, and began wiping the sweat from his brow with the edge white sleeve.

Turning, he locked eyes with Sora for a moment, before looking for Yasha.

Yasha's attention had immediately been diverted from Sora and Tidus as soon as the Heartless mass had begun rising from the cobblestone ground. With an inhuman shriek, she kicked the nearest Heartless, her taloned foot flinging the shadowed monster right into a brick wall. It raised it's head upwards in a voiceless scream as it's body melted away, a Heart appearing where the dark creature once was.

Eyeing the Heart, Yasha spread both wings out, at the same time knocking back two Heartless that had lunged out at her. "Requiem of Souls!" She cried out, her voice still laced with draconic fury at the sight of her own brethren.

The Heart disintegrated almost instantaneously, and Yasha's wings began to glow purple slightly. Grinning, she charged into a Heartless, punching it in the face, and knocking it into another. She pounced on the both of them before either recovered, plunging her claws right though their mid sections, both screeched and died in a explosion of black and purple energy.

Both Hearts within Yasha's claws also disappeared like the first, and the glow surrounding her wings strengthened considerably. Yasha gave another draconic screech, and kicked away a Heartless that clawed at her. Batting another with her wings, she finished off the first opposer with another well-aimed kick. A scream was heard from the second one as she delivered another smash kick.

Yasha gave a yelp of surprise as several Heartless piled on top of her at once, swatting them off of her with her now brightly glowing wings. With a growl, she charged at the Item shop, jumping onto a crate with one leap, and clearing the roof with a second. She spun on her hind talon, jumping right off the roof as soon as she hit the shingles.

Yasha spread both wings to their full length, catching the faint breeze in the square and floating on the air with wings illuminating a purple-ish glow. She glared down at the foes filling the first district, and a whisper passed though her lips, "Dragon's Kiss."

The glow enclosed within her wings flashed, lighting the entire area as it was released. The energy lanced down, skewering all the Heartless within her view, similar to Tidus' Energy Rain technique. Each Heartless fell with a single hit, and the Hearts imprisoned within the monsters rose up skywards.

Instead of the normal red heart laced with black ribbons of darkness, these hearts were pure red and gold. Yasha's talons clicked against the pavement just as the purple light within her wings diminished completely, and the Hearts she absorbed following the others, and also strangely pure of any taint.

"Whoa!" Was Yasha's only exclamation as she fell back on her behind with a slight groan. "Somebody remind me next time not to do that when I just made a Behälter before-hand!"

Tidus had rushed over to the dragon-girl's side almost the moment she had fallen, and found himself laughing at her statement. She was alright just... tired. Good thing that.

"I'll try, but if they pop up that quickly again, I can't exactly keep you from fighting, now can I?" he was grinning widely, despite the painful lacerations that decorated his body-- mostly his unprotected face and shoulders-- from the brief scuffle between the three of them and the Heartless.

"So..." the blonde began, glancing over at Sora, before helping Yasha back onto her feet, "What do you guys want to bet that this 'back door' didn't just open on it's own?"

From personal experience, Tidus had long since learned that there was some reason behind everything, even when you really, really, really didn't want their to be one.

Sora gave an absent nod, a far away look in his sapphire eyes as his grip tightened on the keyblade.

"Yeah..." He turned to face Tidus and Yasha, the dark look still lingering on his face. "It couldn't have just opened on its own. Something must have happened. Something about the prophecy you mentioned, Yasha." He closed his eyes. "The journey's not over yet, like you said. It's barely begun." A smile came to his face.

'Maybe...I'll find what I've lost...maybe…'

The smile became a grin. "I'm going to find out what's going on. Will you guys come with me?" He asked.

With a wry grin and a laugh, Tidus threw an arm over Sora's shoulder, "Why wouldn't I? I haven't seen you in four years! We've got a lot of catching up to do, you know. You going to come, Yasha?"

He paused though, as a thought struck him, and he scratched at his chin, "Hey, how are we going to figure it out? Go places at random?"

Yasha grinned, bouncing to where Sora and Tidus stood. "Of course I'm comin'! I said I'd follow Tidus, he's my friend now! And I get to follow Yummy Hair too!" She giggled.

Yasha paused, and blinked cutely at Tidus' question. "Aren't cha just gonna follow to where the most Darkness is, for starters at least?". She blinked again, and sweat dropped a little. "Ummm... you guys can sense out the darkness, riiiight...?"

Sora blinked slowly. "Uhhh....no...I don't suppose you do? Cause...you're a Heartless...YOU can sense the darkness… right? Cause if one of you can, we can use the Gummi Ship to get to wherever the darkness is."

Sora grinned and pointed to the doors leading out of Traverse Town. "Its right over there, if one of you can sense the darkness, then we can use the Gummi Ship and fly to the nearest world."

"Right then," Tidus dropped his arm from Sora's shoulders, "What are we waiting for? The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to rebuilding our lives, right?"

Sora nodded slowly, casting a glance at his blonde haired friend.

How long had it been? Four years? It was almost funny, standing before him was practically the same boy he had known during childhood. Sure, he was taller, more muscular, and well, older, but he was still the same cheerful guy he knew. He still fought pretty much the same way, he still acted the same way, he was still Tidus.

Then he looked over at this girl, half heartless, whom he'd just met. The Wyvern who kept knocking him off the tower, eh? She seemed awfully cheerful for someone who had her heart stolen and was now currently a half dragon creature. And she called him 'Yummy Hair'. That wasn't TOO weird....

Then again, he'd only met them about ten minutes ago, so who was he to be making assumptions, right?

But still...they seemed so, cheerful, and they had probably been worse off then he'd been. Who was he to go around sulking when there were so many people who were probably being turned into Heartless, or suffering because they were forever stuck as half heartless. It was his duty as Keyblade Master to end that, right?

How many people stuck like that, and why? How many people might remember his fights with them, if Yasha remembered that his hair was 'Yummy', did others like her remember what it was like to fight against him? How many people remained half heartless when they should have been restored? How many had he failed, now? Would the numbers just grow?

Sora shook his head, attempting to clear his thoughts. 'No time for thinking, you can do that later.' He told himself. 'Thinking is bad.'

'Once this is done, then we can go back to rebuilding our lives.' Sora thought, despite his attempts NOT to muse on everything. 'Yeah...maybe when this is done, I can go back? Maybe.'

Sora grinned. "Alright then, lets go!" He said, pumping a fist into the air.

Yasha grinned and did a bouncing sort of jump when Sora pumped his fist. "Yatta!" She giggled, clicking her claws together. She could tell already, this was going to be something big, and very very important...

Yasha's golden eyes glimmered with ill-concealed excitement. She couldn't wait! This 'Gummi Ship' thingy sounded fun! She wondered if it was anything like how the Heartless would travel...

The dragon-girl grinned, her companions were going to be fun too! Yummy Hair, and Chicken Hair over there too, also called 'Tidus'... Tidus had called Yummy Hair something else too, but she liked her name better. She giggled to herself, glad that this time, she was fighting for the right side...

"Alright!" Tidus grinned, and pretty much bounced his way to the Gummi Ship, sure that Yasha and Sora were right behind him. It didn't take him all that long to figure out how to get into the contraption, and he settled himself into the pilot's chair.

Not that he actually knew how to operate it, of course. He made a cursory glance to check to see if his two partners were in the Gummi Ship, before he began to randomly hit buttons, "Hey, Sora... how do you start this thing?"

When the engine started up abruptly, he grinned widely, and hit a few more buttons. Never let it be said that Tidus was intelligent enough to realize that what he was doing could, quite possibly screw them over completely.

Which is why he didn't realize he'd done anything wrong until he'd already hit the button for the warp navi and sent them rocketing away from the world that Traverse Town resided on, without a set course.

"Uh... oops?"

---

End Prologue


	2. dreams 01

Black Dreams Eternal: Chapter One  
Chapter written by: Tidus ((Priest)), Sora ((Crys)), Yasha ((Kaya)), Aeon ((Shadowclaw)), and Arados

* * *

CRASH! BOOM! CRASH! SMASH!

Those are the sounds that were ringing through the Gummi Ship as it hurtled towards the unknown.

"You idiot!" Sora cried, attempting to wrestle a certain blonde- furisode-wearing idiot who'd just sent them blasting into the unknown. "You just sent us blasting towards who-knows-what! For all we know, you could have just sent us blasting towards a....a...." Sora stopped for a moment, attempting to think of a word. "...A...Black hole! Now out of the Captains chair, I'm flying from now on!" He declared.

The brunette went back to attempting to pull Tidus out of the Captains chair.

"Ow! Ow! Sora, stop pulling my hair!" Tidus whined, legs locked around the chair, and hands gripping the controls until his knuckles were white, "C'mon! I've never flown anything before!"

He paused, and despite Sora's pain-inducing attempts to get him out of the chair, he spoke calmly, "Well, there was that one time, in Spira, that they let me pilot the airship, but Lulu nearly took my head off when I almost crashed it into the ocean..." before going back to yelping and trying not to be thrown from the seat.

Unfortunately for him-- Sora was stronger, and Tidus' legs eventually gave out on him. The boy teenager was sent flying, end over end, out of the chair to crash into the back wall of the gummi ship, before sliding down to the floor. He lay there, upside down and head ringing, trying to figure how he'd got to where he was, the landing disorientating him perhaps a touch to much, "Owie..."

Yasha had immediately wandered over to the back area as soon as she hopped onboard the strange, lego-ish vehicle. Trouble being, she had no idea what a 'lego' was, but looking at the gummi ship, she figured it to be very colorful and blocky.

Yasha looked up from inspecting what appeared to be some rolled-up cots in the back when she heard Tidus and Sora yelling at one another. Peeking out of the back room, she blinked several times as she watched Sora attempting to yank Tidus, by the hair, out of a chair.

Looking out a nearby window on the ship, the half-Heartless vaguely realized they were no longer on any planet in particular, and had left without her noticing. She shrugged, figuring the back of the ship had better shock-absorbers then the other parts.

Yasha gave a startled dragon-ish yelp when Tidus went flying her in her direction, and slammed the door shut. After half a minute, she reopened the door, shoving Tidus off of it. Viewing the carnage, she blinked again.

"You people are CRAZIE..."

"WE'RE Crazy?" Sora raised an eyebrow from the captains , no one could see that, but oh well. "What about You, Miss 'Yummy hair! I'm soooooooo glad you're okie, okie'?" He inquired, making a poor imitation of Yasha's voice.

The brunette turned his attention back to....driving, well, not really driving, more like flying, but whatever. Well, for a second he wasn't paying attention, seeing as he enjoyed taping the blue fuzzy dice hanging off of the intercom mike and watching them swing. Wheee.....fuzzy dice.

Tidus shook his head out, having been knocked half-way-to-unconscious by Yasha's entrance, before rolling onto his feet.

Conveniently forgetting that it was his fault that they were in the middle of nowhere, without any idea of which direction to take to go anywhere, the blonde scratched his head, "So, how do we know when we get to a world?"

Then he jumped on the back of Sora's chair and clung there like he used to cling to trees when "sparing" with Riku. This meant he had his legs and arms wrapped around the chair and Sora. Somewhat spitefully, over having his chair taken away, Tidus dug his chin into the other's head, and blinked.

"Hey, where'd the dice come from?"

Sora's eye twitched in annoyance at having the captains chair and himself glomped by a blonde haired moron wearing Japanese woman's clothing. See, normally Sora would be in a slightly more cheerful mood. Unfortunately, being glomped by a half-human half-heartless, nearly having his lungs crushed, finding out the Heartless were lose again, and getting launched to god-knows-where by Tidus, while one of those might not be so bad by itself, all of those things together were making him just a bit irritated.

"Tidus, first off, please remove yourself from myself and the chair." The brunette growled. "Second, I have no idea, we just kind of fly until we run into something I guess. And third, the fuzzy dice are a present from a friend of mine, and I like them. Okay. Can you get off of me now?"

Oh yes....this was going to be a looooooong flight.

Yasha giggled when Sora yelled at her for calling him 'Yummy Hair'. Obviously finding it more amusing then threatening. She walked up behind the two boys and lightly batted at the dice, watching them swing back and forth in a hypnotized way.

Yasha randomly giggled again. "You should take a right, Yummy Hair!"

"Why a right?" Tidus wondered, completely ignoring Sora's previous demand to let go of the chair. He was, actually, quite comfortable where he was, despite having Sora's wild brown mane ending up in his mouth more often than not. In fact... he squeezed his arms a little bit tighter around Sora's neck, just to prove that he was still there, "Why not a left? We could always go left."

Tidus just liked being contradictory, from time to time.

Yasha lightly thwacked Tidus on the head, and considering her huge claws, this was more then enough to knock him right off the chair. She didn't notice this however, as she was to busy rolling her eyes.

"'Cause that's where I can sense the most darkness, silly!" Yasha waited for a response from the blond teen, and upon not hearing one, looked down at the floor.

"Hey, Tidus-kun, why're you laying there all funny?.."

Sora almost hugged Yasha for knocking Tidus off, save for two reasons. One, this was Yasha, and she would probably hug him back and crush his lungs again, two because he was attempting to pilot a Gummi Ship and the act of hugging would involve him letting go of the instruments of steering.

"Uhhh...I think he's on the floor cause you knocked him there, Yasha, and thank you for doing that." Sora said, twisting the steering...thing to the right. "And...yup, we're goin' right. You're sure it's too the right, right?"

It took Tidus a full ten minutes to recover from being slapped away from the chair by Yasha. Silently, he cursed the fact that he didn't have any scales to protect the back of his head, before changing his mind and deciding he liked his hair to much to have had it replaced by the thin layer of protective scales that covered the back of his neck, parts of his shoulders, the backs of his arms, and his legs.

Rubbing the aching point of his skull, the blonde stood up slowly to get his balance back, then blinked at his companions. Sora was taking care of what appeared to be... debris... floating through the realm between worlds, that could have hit their ship.

Had this... had this once been a world? Had it been destroyed? How though? The Heartless never left anything of the worlds that they destroyed, but this... there was debris and pieces of it everywhere. It was like piloting through a mine field.

Obviously, in the ten minutes he'd been out of it, they'd been following Yasha's directions and had come across this strange sight. It sent a chill down his back, of which he decided to remedy right then and there.

Cheerfully, he draped himself over the back of Sora's chair, one arm over Sora's shoulder and across his collarbone, before he pointed out the main window curiously, "What's all this, Sora? You blow something up?"

Hey, Tidus took comfort in being able to physically touch someone without causing harm. It had been to long since he had been able to equate touching with comfort, and not the sting of battle.

Sora sighed as again Tidus' arm had found itself a spot on him. "Tidus, please get your arm off of me." He sighed, knowing full well the blonde wasn't going to budge anytime soon. 'Just ignore it...' Sora told himself, turning his attention back to the going-ons outside the ship.

Sora's brow furrowed at the debris as he piloted the ship through it. "No, I didn't blow anything up.." He said with a shake of his head. "Something else must've caused this, it's not the normal stuff you see in the space between worlds." He observed, maneuvering the ship carefully past a rather large piece of debris.

By going past the large piece, they were able to see what it was obscuring, a rather large, barren looking planet. It looked sorta like a rock, with a HUGE chunk blasted out of it and many holes and scars marring the surface. The world was colored a sort of red, or at least what remained of its surface was colored red.

"Sooo..." Sora said after a moment of silence. "Who's betting that's where all the junk came from? Ya think there's anyone still living on it?"

Yasha nodded excitedly. "Yeah yeah! That's where the darkness is coming from, that planet is still -alive-! And since it is, there's Heartless there. And if the Heartless aren't finished with it yet, there still be some innocent peoples down there!"

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Tidus tightened his grip around Sora's shoulders for a moment, before flinging both arms out, "Lets head down! Crash land or something!"

He paused at the dirty look he got from Sora, and amended that statement, "Okay, fine, don't crash land. Just land. I wanna get out there and thrash something!" He was getting antsy.

In times to come, he would realize that 'getting antsy' was the feeling that came when he was on the same world as another Sinspawn. He'd been like that back on Spira, as well, but at the current moment in time, he had no idea that that is what this feeling meant.

All he knew was that he either wanted to be down there, or very far away, and quite frankly, the blown up world was making him curious, "Which button is down?"

And he started to reach for the dashboard.

Sora's eyes widened and he grabbed Tidus' wrist. "Don't. Touch." He stated, pushing the other boys arm away. "We don't need you crashing the Gummi Ship and getting us killed before the Heartless get any more shots at it."

The brunette maneuvered the Gummi Ship towards the planet. "Geez, I really hope there's someone still living on this thing." Sora mumbled.

Aeon ran, his heart pounding, his feet pounding the ground relentlessly as he did so. It had been almost a month since landing, (well crash landing to be honest) on this planet. He'd driven his own craft directly into the planet –on purpose- causing one hell of a mess in the process. He wasn't too pleased about having survived the impact in some respects but you just had to make the best of a bad situation. He had no idea why these . . . things . . . were chasing him – well maybe just the one reason but nobody knew about that surely. As he ran, somehow finding the energy to keep himself going, he failed to notice a tree root almost casually sticking out from the ground. Snagging his taloned foot, he tumbled over and over, finally coming to a stop in a wide open area.

As a loud multitude of cries came from where he had been running from, a strange feeling began to overtake him. A feeling of familiarity almost, deep, primal, like he could sense something or someone, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. Aeon growled. Sinspawn here? How was that possible? He snapped himself out of his thoughts and prepared himself for the inevitable battle he was going to have to fight. If he could sense the Sinspawn no doubt the Sinspawn could also sense him. He'd meet it soon enough.

As he stood there, relishing the blood-rush that was filling his veins, the first of his new tormentors appeared in his sight. A strange being – Aeon had only seen it a few days ago and just the one at first. It appeared to be comprised of smoke yet somehow solid – golden eyes blazing out of its dark form. Aeon had assumed it was a denizen of the planet at first and tried to talk to it – that was when he had first been attacked.

The smoky creature had tried to . . . . well rip his heart out using magic he guessed. Its hand had glowed and it had clawed in vain at his chest but nothing much had happened after that. It had let out a primal screech into the night, causing more of its kind to appear. Aeon hadn't bothered sticking around for the next part. Two days he had been running now. He did manage to put a fair amount of distance between him and the creatures at one point by flying over a chasm, but they had managed to catch back up with him again.

Aeon let out a bestial screech, throwing the cloak around his shoulders to the ground, relishing the feel of air around his wings, flexing his arms and taloned hands, stretching the kinks from his back and neck.

Clicking his beak in anger, his once blue eyes now blazing a fierce red, the phoenix/humanoid hybrid took up a fighting stance, and shouted to the demonic beings waiting to attack him.

"Bring it on!"

"Ow! Gee, Sora, watch the wrist!" So he had scales on the backside of his wrist-- that didn't mean he had them in the soft fleshy area where Sora's fingernails had dug in to keep from him from the dashboard. Gingerly rubbing the red area, he pouted at Yasha, "He's so mea--"

But he was cut off as the ship hit ground, bouncing a couple times before coming to a halt. Tidus blinked slowly as he brought himself back to his feet, "Nice landing Sora, real nice."

He felt like spiders were slowly crawling up his spine, and it wasn't a very nice feeling. A shudder worked it's way through him, before he pursed his lips, oddly serious, "Yasha? Where's the darkness? I got this baaaaad feeling that we're close to the boiling point, and I'd rather be fighting when things go to hell."

Yasha perked up at Tidus' question, now she would get to be useful again! Smiling cheerily at his 'when this all goes to hell' comment, she kicked the door open lightly(which left a small dent), and jumped down from the ship to the ground. Digging her talons in as she hit the dry, cracked earth, she flapped out her wings to their full flight-span.

Yasha slipped her eyes closed, going into a momentary trance. Her wings glimmered ruby red for a barest second, before her eyelids snapped back open. and she launched herself into the sky. She flapped her wings and giggled, waving a clawed hand to the west.

"They're a thatta way! There's a whole lot of 'em too, and something else, but I can't tell what. T'is not a Heartless, but it hasn't got a Heart..." Yasha shrugged absently, and keeping low to the ground, flew off in the specified direction.

"C'mon! There's a fight breaking out, I can -feel- it!"

Sora began running in the direction Yasha had gone, already summoning the keyblade into his hand, feeling it's reassuring weight. He could feel a little of his old self coming back, the excitement of battle bubbling through him.

'I wonder if that's good?' Sora thought to himself. He let a small grin come to his face. "C'mon, let's go then!" He cried.

"Hey! Guys! Wait up!" Tidus gave an indignant squawk, chasing after his two companions, his long furisode waving behind him like some sort of flag. To an outside observer, had there been any, it would have been amusing.

But there were no observers, not in this blasted landscape. Here and there, one could find specks of life and light, but they were few and far between, swallowed by the shadows that had overrun the world. It was a frightening sight, but Tidus pushed that out of his mind as he raced off after his friends and towards something that caused his stomach to knot.

Then they were upon the battle, blades and claws slicing through Heartless after Heartless, headed towards a figure that was fighting just as fiercely as they were. For a moment, Tidus got a good look at their fellow fighter.

A moment was it took.

In that moment, it struck him, that familiarity, and he found himself snarling, blue eyes flashing angrily. His conscious mind had discovered what his instincts had already known.

"Sinspawn!"

Aeon was busy slashing left and right with his own taloned fingers, desperately trying to dodge the shadowy, wraith-like claws of the enemy. He had no idea what these things were, and didn't particularly care either.

He had partially taken to the air, flapping his golden wings to keep him floating a few centimeters above the ground, which allowed him a greater degree of maneuverability while he fought. As one of the beasts tore an icy claw across his arm he involuntarily shuddered at the cold touch. He swung his arm in a vicious backlash, knocking the foul thing away from him.

Suddenly some of the heartless broke off. Looking up to see the reason why Aeon noticed three others joining the fray. One appeared to be a winged dragon-like creature. The second was a human male wielding a most unusual looking weapon. It was the third that caught his eye most, as it explained his strange feeling earlier.

"A Sinspawn!" Aeon gasped softly, his voice unheard amongst the sounds of battle. But alas the few seconds he'd used to check out the newcomers was a few too many.

Pain tore through his mind as he felt one of his wings freeze yet burn at the same time. Twisting as he touched back down he met the gaze of a heartless, blood dripping from its dark claw.

As Aeon turned it struck again, raking its claws down his chest, many of its brethren joining in the attack on him, the intense coldness forcing him to his knees on the ground.

The pain was unbearable, the cold threatening to make him pass out, spots already appearing across his vision. With a primal bird-like shriek Aeon summoned every last ounce of strength and fought back against the pain.

Forcing his eyes to clear Aeon stared into the eyes of the shadowy demon in front of him.

"You . . . play . . . with . . . fire . . ." Aeon fought to get the words out.

The pile of heartless was suddenly blown apart, spirals of fire twisting away from Aeon's body, his feathers ablaze yet not burning, his body already relishing the heat it felt, the coldness no more.

"You're gonna get burned!!!" Aeon yelled, before rushing back into battle.

"Holy..." Tidus swore, having not once let his eyes be taken away from the form of the other Sinspawn. He had been making his way towards this other sinspawn, determined to take out the remnant of that which had changed him, on top of the Heartless that he had been smacking out of the way.

But the flames that had just exploded out of the bird-sinspawn's body were... well, a bit distressing when brought into consideration with his own power. Sure, he was strong, but still... he didn't know if he was that strong.

Ah, well, that didn't matter. What mattered was taking out the Heartless. Hopefully, the other would get killed in the-- wait. No. A Heartless Sinspawn? Ah hell, that meant he'd have to actually protect the clueless creature before taking it out.

The Brotherhood swung through the air as he put more force behind the blows to get closer to the bird-man faster.

"Oi!" he shouted, before ducking under a swung, parrying another blow, and kicking out to send one of the Heartless flying over the heads of the others and towards Yasha. He didn't know if the other could understand him, but such considerations had never stopped him before, "Sinspawn! What the hell you do to get all these Heartless on your tail?"

Aeon was now slashing heartless left and right, trying to keep their cold hands away from his sensitive body. His body was still smoking slightly from the attack but mysteriously no part of him had been burnt by the flames.

Oi! A shout rang out. Aeon grabbed the creature currently in front of him and threw it into a bunch of its kin. Whirling around he found himself face to face with the other sinspawn. Standing right next to it he recognized it from the memories he was forced to carry in his mind, memories of a past he didn't live but a past he was unable to live without. A name floated to the surface of those memories. Tidus.

Tidus shouted another question at him.

"Sinspawn! What the hell you do to get all these Heartless on your tail?"

"Don't call me Sinspawn! The name's Aeon!" he yelled over the din of the battle! "These things are called heartless?"

The phoenix/sinspawn took to the air slightly, kicking aside a heartless that had got to close for comfort.

"Then what do they want with me? I've not done anything to them!"

The exchange of words was cut short as Aeon and Tidus were separated by a heartless who shoved Aeon aside.

Yasha had charged into the battle claws first, and tore the first Heartless near her to shreds with her claws, and swatted another away with her wing.

Yasha managed to turn her head just in time to notice the Heartless Tidus had sent her way, and grinning twistedly, plunged one taloned hand straight though it's chest cavity. Then flung it off her hand and into another incoming shadow.

With a feral shriek, Yasha launched herself into a gaggle of Heartless, raking her claws across anything solid in sight.

They were Heartless, they had to die.

Sora kept on a wary eye upon the shadowy creatures charging at him, his grip tightening on the key in his gloved right hand. A small smirk made its way onto his face. He closed his eyes, concentrating on summoning energy into the weapon in his hand. A glow of crimson and gold danced around him, traveling from his body into the keyblade.

"Bring it on." Sora said with a grin, sapphire eyes opening, the Heartless nearly at him now. "Strike raid!" He cried, bringing his arm back and flinging his glowing weapon at the heartless, the keyblade becoming a spinning whirl of gold and crimson, slashing through the masses of shadow. The keyblade flew back to it's master's hand and with a cry the boy flung it again, chocolate colored hair falling into his eyes as he did so. The keyblade again came to his hands, three times more, and three times more he threw it again.

Finally the keyblade was caught into Sora's palm and with a cry Sora charged at the many heartless still remaining, spinning and swinging the keyblade in an arc, striking several heartless around him, slicing a few in two and savagely damaging others. He continued doing this, alternating between doing this and using his old combos.

Even with the four of them battling as furiously as they were, the Heartless weren't thinning very quickly. Tidus winced as he was slashed across his cheek, the claws trailing in a line parallel to the scales dusting his left cheek.

They weren't doing so hot, and it was getting harder and harder to unleash his overdrive attacks as time wore on.

Eyes narrowing sharply, Tidus swung the Brotherhood in a sloppy arc, only to follow up with a vicious kick. If they didn't get help-- and soon-- he was going to fall into his berserker mode. Which would be bad. The blonde was unsure if he'd be able to tell friend from foe in that state.

Still, there was nothing more that could be done without help.

A short distance away from the other's fight, another Gummi Ship landed unseen on the charred landscape. Small, maybe able to fit 2 or 3 people, it hid well among what might once of been building. After a few cautious minutes the door to it's cock pit opened and a single figure stepped out.

Arados stared around at once was probably a world, now nothing more than chunk of floating debris and ruin as her dark hazel eyes looked over the land. It reminded her of something people used to talk about, what was it?... Oh yes, the apocalypse. It would certainly seem so if any survivor had seen her standing among the ruins, soft white wings fluttering softly and casting dancing shadows, her glaive held firmly in one hand.

"Hm?" Arados turned her head slightly as she saw a shadow move among the rubble. One lone shadow heartless moved towards her in a slinking motion, it's bright yellow eyes staring back at her. A heartless. Arados stared blankly at it with faint recognition. Yes, these beings... they had been in her home world. Arados took a step towards it, hand reaching out, as she remembered the silent beings that used to watch her as she played in the woods and fields.

She froze as the heartless hissed, drawing back and away from her, claws bared. Memories returned to her. Heartless... End of Days... 4 years... eternity... darkness... empty...

Arados shook her head, keeping her watch on the heartless. She drew her scythe out, pointing it at the shadow heartless. It hissed one again and scurried off, Arados following in pursuit. The farther she followed it, she realized, the more that began to appear. She spread out her wings and flapped upwards a few feet, skimming just out of reach of the claws and fangs of other heartless. Due to the flat terrain, she could see a group of heartless gathered not to far away, and... people fighting them?

Wings stopped as she caught full sight of the fight, flapping now and than to keep her hovered in mid-air. The heartless that she had followed became lost in the crowed of heartless. A dragon-girl... a brown-haired boy wielding some odd weapon... and two others who she couldn't place, though one of them, the one with golden colored hair, she could see wasn't faring to well. Most of them didn't seem to be.

For a minute Arados could only hover there as she took in this strange sight, than felt the brush of claws beneath her. Heartless eyes leered up at her, and snapped her out of her revere. She spread her wings once again, skimming forward towards the golden-haired boy, her glaive held diagonally in front of her.

"Take them on all sides!" she called on instinct, landing a few feet away from him. She swung out with her glaive, pivoting in a circle and using her wings to gain strong momentum, killing and wounding a circle of heartless around her. "GRAVIRA!" she cried out, raising her glaive as she summoned the magic to dispel the remaining heartless.

The shout caused Tidus to be distracted for but a moment, but that hardly mattered, now that whoever it was that had just arrived had cast her spell-- because the Heartless had fallen back, in surprise, fear, and death as they were attacked by a new enemy.

With the newly arrived breathing room, he grinned fierily, and launched himself at the considerably smaller group of Heartless that were attacking him. With his second wind, he laid into the creatures that had destroyed a good chunk of his life, "C'mon, you sons of--" his words were cut off as he took a jab to the stomach, but he didn't care.

He was cutting them down, and that was all that mattered as he unleashed his overdrive once more, "ENERGY RAIN!"

Sora looked up at the stranger who had flown into the battle, yelling out something about surrounding them and launching a gravira attack. He nodded at girl and swung his own keyblade.

"Graviga!" He cried out, adding his own gravity spell to the new- comers, crushing more heartless under the attack. "Guys!" He called out. "Surround em so we can all attack and finish them off, like she said!"

With that Sora ran past the remaining Heartless so he was standing outside of them and began concentrating to build up energy for an attack.

Aeon had grown tired of being slashed at by so cold heartless claws and had taken to the air himself. Watching with interest as the newcomer and Sora's combined magic pressed the heartless to the floor his beak twisted into a smirk.

Holding his hands up in the air, he put his own pryokinetic abilities to good use. As his forearms blazed back into flames again he pointed his hands down at the heartless. Slinging down balls of fire with precise movements of his hands he laughed coldly as several heartless burst into flame, only to be cut down moments later by one of the fighters below.

Arados fluttered quickly among the heartless, leaving explanations for later. Slicing quickly left and right as she passed by crowds of the dark beings, she wounded some and destroyed the others already hit. Slowly the crowd of heartless were beginning to thin.

A soft ripping noise and a twinge of pain from behind distracted her, a heartless having managed to grab a hold of the lower end of her right wing and ripping it's claws through the feathers. Arching her wings up, Arados turned and slashed through the heartless, flapping upward again.

She glided to the edge of the ring of heartless, swooping down low enough to brush the top of the heartless's antenna. Ignoring their scratches and swipes, she circled round once more baiting them, than once more focusing her glaive in their midst and shouting "GRAVIRA!".

Yasha merely grinned when another stranger flew into the scene and starting throwing spells around, another new friend to help! She smashed a Heartless in the jaw and spin-kicked another in the gut. After tearing both Heartless' heads off, she pounced over to the enclosing circle the human and humanoids were making around the Heartless.

Flapping her leathery wings, Yasha jump-kicked a Heartless, sending it spiraling into another, and launching herself towards Sora. "Yummy Haaiiir! Need any heeelp?" She sang while grinning cutely.

The brunette looked over as Yasha kicked a Heartless his way and grinned, finishing the Graviga spell he had been launching and concentrated, gold and red energy dancing around him.

He eyed the Heartless coming at him. "Sonic Blade!" He cried, becoming a crimson and gold streak, almost too fast to see and leaving nothing in it's wake. White and blue energy began to gather at the end of this attack. "Blast!" The last blow was really like a sonic blast, blasting away debris and Heartless. Sora smiled and stood up straight, surveying the area. Not a Heartless remained.

"Hey! Thanks for helping us!" Sora called out to the girl whom had helped them, also addressing the odd phoenix like man standing as well. "What's your guys' names?"

Aeon flew gently back down to the ground having seen the last heartless vanquished.

The other male who had appeared with the sinspawn and the dragon called out to him.

"Hey! Thanks for helping us! What's your guys' names?"

Aeon walked closer to the male, bending down to pick up his cloak from where he had dropped it.

Aeon felt something wet run down his arm. Looking at it he noticed a steady trickle of blood running from an open wound a heartless had given him. Closing his eyes and concentrating the cut slowly started to knit back together, with Aeon grimacing in pain as it did so.

"My name's Aeon." he said as he stood up again.

Despite himself Aeon couldn't help but be impressed.

"Nice fighting back there. You're pretty skilled with that . . . weapon . . . thing."

With the heartless finally gone, Arados landed nimbly on the ground, glaive lowered at her side. She didn't look up when she heard Sora ask her and Aeon what their names were and instead took her own time in answering.

Right wing spread out slightly and wrapped a little in front of her, she straightened the feathers where the heartless had clawed. There was hardly a wound, at least nothing left that couldn't heal fine by itself, but ruffled feathers could be very uncomfortable. Eyes fixed on her task, she repositioned each over the slight wound for protection.

Finally, she looked up, both wings falling neatly against her back once more, fixing each of the group with a wide, intense stare before looking finally to Sora. "Arados." she said simply after a moment.

Tidus barely heard either answer, eyes locked on Aeon, and growling under his breath. Sinspawn-- oh how he hated sinspawn. Ignoring that he, himself, had become one not that long ago, he loathed them with all his heart and soul.

Which was really saying something, since his heart was currently in his sword. Did that mean his sword hated them too? Ah, a question for another day-- all he cared about right now was taking out a potential threat.

What did he care that this guy helped him? He was sinspawn, and sinspawn were disgusting horrid things that meant that Yuna was still dancing for the dead. Something he had hoped to have stopped her from having to do with his sacrifice.

Ignoring his injuries from the barely finished battle, the blonde stalked over to the bird-man, and did only what he thought was right.

He lifted the Brotherhood and attempted to take Aeon's head off with it.

Aeon snarled as the other sinspawn stepped forward to swing his blade in a vicious arc at his head. Flapping his wings with all his strength he flew back up into the air, the resultant gust of wind pushing Tidus's blade off course and forcing the human to step back. Aeon's eyes burst from calm blue to fiery red in an instant, his body engulfing itself in an aura of blazing fire. With a gesture from his outstretched hand he sent a long stream of flame at the ground to hit the stop where Tidus had been standing mere seconds before.

"You DARE try that again Scale-boy and the next one doesn't miss!" Aeon said in his hissed whisper of a voice, the fury practically radiating from him with pure intensity.

"Hey hey HEY!" Sora cried, stepping between the two. "CHILL!" He said, waving his arms.

"Okay..um...Aeon was it?" Sora inquired, looking over at man pulsing with flames of rage. you give us a second?" He said before turning over to Tidus.

"Okaaaay...ah..Tidus? Dude. Chill. He's a guy with wings....who can shoot fire. No biggie. I don't know what's going on here...but ah..I don't think it requires taking this guys head off. This guy just helped us not get dead. I really don't think he's a guy you should go and kill." Sora scratched his head. "Why you would wanna kill the guy is beyond me...but can you like, hold back the urge to murder the guy? I'm sure he's not all that bad."

"And um....Aeon?" Sora said, looking over at the man, still flaming. "Ummm.....can you please not burn my friend to a crisp? He does act like an idiot sometimes, but he's a reeaaaaalllyyy nice guy and I really kinda don't want him dead. Also, it's not cool to kill the guy you just fought alongside."

Sora sweat dropped. "Ah..yeah......so ah, can you guys just NOT kill each other?"

Tidus growled, fingers clenching at the sword in his hand, "He's Sinspawn, Sora! That's a pretty big thing-- to me, to my friends, to Spira! His kind helped Sin destroy Zanarkand, Kilika, and god knows only how many millions of people!"

The blonde blitzer was practically seething in rage, glaring at this remnant of his own personal sacrifices. Had it all been in vain? Had they not actually defeated Sin? Had he left his loved ones behind to face that evil without him?

He couldn't bare the thought, couldn't stand the mere idea that Yuna had been left to deal with Sin without him by her side. His pseudo- father was his problem, and he was supposed to deal with the bastard himself!

Aeon growled at the mention of Sin, angrily pushing several memories back before they had a chance to reappear.

"You are one twisted creature if you hold every other sinspawn responsible for that thing's actions. It ever occur to you some of them might be totally innocent? I wasn't even involved!"

Aeon flew back down to the ground slowly, keeping his distance from Tidus in case he needed to make another quick ascent.

"I'm the last sinspawn that freak of nature ever created and damned if I'll stand here and listen while you blame me for a lifetime of actions I never had anything to do with!"

Aeon landed and tried to calm himself down. Fighting with brethren was not a good idea. He changed the subject, his eyes slowly changing back to blue.

He looked over at the one person who had yet to introduce herself. Some half dragon girl or something. He smiled pleasantly then turned back to Sora.

"So what's with the smoky bandits? Somehow I don't believe you came here just for the pleasures of a fight."

Arados sat against a boulder-sized piece of rubble, watching as Tidus tried to be-head Aeon and Sora tried to restrain him from doing something they just might regret. The whole time she watched silent and eerily wide-eyed, until Tidus began to talk about Spira and the sinspawn.... something that caught her attention.

Her eyes narrowed, though she remained in the same relaxed position. She listened closely, trying to piece it together. 'Sinspawn...' she thought, connecting it into relation with the Heartless. Of course, the Heartless must of not been the only creatures to be haunting the worlds once the door was opened.

"Are you sure this is wise?" Arados said quietly, sinking back into her silent revere again, staring at Sora, Tidus, and Aeon. "There could be more than just Heartless around... and he seems to be the worst of your troubles right now."

Yasha shifted her weight from one of her giant taloned feet to the other as Sora attempted to calm both Sinspawn down. Her normally cheerful appearance was replaced by a childish and confused sadness, as she seemingly was incapable of grasping what they were fighting about. Fighting anything except Heartless didn't make any logic to the dragon girl.

Yasha piped up directly after the other winged-girl quieted. "I agree! We've got bigger fish to fry! We should all get along, more friends make the road funner, right?". She tilted her head, the last statement being more of a question.

The half-Heartless decided to try and help the situation in her own way. She hopped forwards and spread her wings outwards, grinning towards Aeon. "HI! Lemme welcome you!" she squealed.

It took approximately .0005 seconds for Yasha to tackle her glomp- victim.

Aeon looked at the dragon girl about to ask her what her name was when she hopped forward.

"HI! Lemme welcome you!" she squealed.

Before he could blink her arms were wrapped around him in a vice grip of pain. He cried out in surprise, Pushing on the upper part of her arms with all his might he desperately tried to force her off.

" . . .get . . . off . . . me . . ." he gasped.

He felt the cut on his arm split open again - his healing must not have done the job properly. As the blood ran freely down his arm he pulled hard. Well that was worth freeing his arm by a whole millimeter.

" . . . You're . . . crushing . . . my . . . spine . . . and . . . wings . . . "

Seeing spots in front of his eyes Aeon closed them and concentrated, both increasing the natural body heat he gave off and trying desperately to scratch the dragon girl's arms raw with his taloned hands. But he was probably only tickling her at best.

Aeon didn't believe in faith or religion or any of that rubbish. But right now he prayed this insane beast would hurry up and let go.

Sora groaned, slapping his forehead with a gloved-hand. "Why me?" He mumbled, rubbing his temples before stepping over to the dragon-girl.

"Ah, Yasha? You're crushing Aeon's spine." The Keyblade Master said, gently tapping Yasha's shoulder. "I really don't think he wants his spine broken into many tiny little pieces, D'ya think you could let him go?"

Yasha giggled and loosened her grip ever so slightly when Aeon tickled her. A audible 'awww' was heard from the draconic female when Sora asked her to let go, which she did, and promptly latched onto Sora's spiky crown of hair.

"Okie, whatever you say, YUMMY HAIR!" She chirped happily, taking a big whiff of the brunet's hair.

Ignoring his friend's odd fetish with Sora's hair, Tidus was busily laughing himself to death-- watching the other Sinspawn get the stuffing squeezed out of him by Yasha had been great. It made him feel a whole lot better.

Finally calming himself, he gave the phoenix a long, hard look, "So maybe I don't kill you now, but I'll be watching you. You do anything towards my friends, and I will kill you, bird-boy. Even if it means destroying my body again."

Aeon turned on him, speaking in that strange whisper of a voice he possessed.

"Now you listen to me scale features. I have no interest in you, let alone killing you. Seeing as your arrival just dealt with a bunch of smoking monsters who have been following for over a day I don't want to kill anyone else gathered here either. Now can we all get off this damn rock somehow cos I would be ever so happy to leave it behind."

He folded his wings against his back and started to put the cloak back on.

Sora let out a cry of alarm as Yasha latched onto his head and started sniffing his hair. He sighed, pulling himself upright. "Yasha.." He began but decided to just let the odd dragon- girl stay on him. Hey, she'd get over her obsession eventually....

...he hoped.

The Keybearer sighed, trying his best to stand up straight. 'Well, things are going great. We're on a nice big nearly destroyed hunk of rock, Tidus and Aeon are at each others throats, who knows WHAT Arados is thinking, and I have an odd dragon girl sniffing my hair like a flower. Oh yeah, we're off to a great start so far.' He thought.

"Alright." Sora said, attempting to get everyone's attention. "Now that we're done with the nice friendly introductions, like Aeon said, let's get out of here. I really don't think there's much more we can do here, I really doubt there's anymore living things here to save. This world's pretty much lost."

'I wonder what this world looked like before it was attacked.' Sora thought. 'What were the people like? Were they peaceful? Or maybe they were always waging wars? I wonder what it would have been like if we had come earlier...'

Sora shook his head slightly. No point in thinking 'what if'. Right now he had to be thinking of the present.

"So...yeah." Sora continued. "Let's get out of here."

Aeon smiled slightly, an amazing feat seeing as he had a beak and not a mouth.

"Best thing I've heard all day. This place got kinda boring after the first two weeks of being on it. So which direction to your ship?"

He eyed the dragon girl still enjoying the aromatherapy of Sora's head. Well the kid did him a favor in getting her off so best he return it.

"Hey err Yasha was it? Maybe it might be an idea to save some hair sniffing for later, like maybe when we get to wherever it is we're all going?"

Yasha giggled, continuing to sniff at Sora's spiky hair, playing with the tussled locks of hair while the others talked. Her already dangerously large grin widened, 'Yayyay! Onto the next world we gooo!'.

Yasha blinked her owlishly large eyes at Aeon's request. Shrugging, she took one last whiff of the shampoo and conditioner scent, and gave the hair a big kiss. "I wuv you!", she happily informed the hair while hopping off of Sora.

Sora shuddered slightly. "Okaaaaaay..." He said, running a hand through his now messier then before hair. "I guess we should get going then." He looked over at Aeon and Arados. "If you want we can drop you guys off at Traverse Town or something..or..well.."

Sora grinned slightly. "Okay, here's the deal. You see them Heartless thingy's that attacked you Aeon? Well, they happen to invading every world. They're out to kinda destroy everything. I kinda beat these things once before, so now we gotta do it again. So yeah, we're traveling to other worlds to stop the Heartless. Anyways, we can either drop you guys off at Traverse Town and you guys can lead semi normal lives, or you can come with us and lead a life of total insanity and saving the world...and stuff. I mean, cause like, you guys seem like pretty good fighters. We could use some more people." The Keyblade Master grinned, extending his hand. "So, you guys wanna come along?"

Aeon considered the offer. He wasn't too pleased at being attacked by those . . . Heartless . . . and he was more than up for wiping out their kind. Besides, he doubted he would find any peace lazing around doing nothing.

He stretched out a taloned hand and grasped Sora's firmly.

"It would please me greatly to join you on your . . . quest."

Arados looked at Sora's out stretched hand, weighing what he said. After a few moments, she sighed. As if after meeting Sora, Tidus, Yasha, and Aeon she could just walk away and lead as normal a life she could get. Yeah, she could do that. And probably feel even more guilty for the rest of her life. "Sure." Arados said and shrugged, getting the feeling that this was going to a very, very interesting trip.

Sora grinned. "Alright then!" He said. "I guess we should get going then!" He began to walk towards the gummi ship, then looked back at their current rather large group.

"..Aw crap." He mumbled. "How are we going to do this? Lesee, one Gummi Ship, three seats, six people. Three with wings." Sora groaned. "How the hell are we gonna do this?"

Arados sighed once more as the problem of the Gummi Ship came up. She looked over in the direction of her Gummi Ship, still over... somewhere. "I have a Gummi Ship that we can either use to add parts onto yours... or we can break up into groups. But..." Arados trailed off as yet another flaw came into their plans. "It isn't very big." She was silent for a few more moments, glaring at a rock in frustration. Though, she was slightly amused at this. She remembered when she and Mica used to take little camping trips into the forest, and they would always forget something. 'Stop.' she told herself abruptly. From behind a ruin she could see a Heartless peep it's head out at the group.

"Or we could kill the Heartless until we have enough pieces." She added, swinging her scythe casually, a piercing iciness in her eyes.

"Killing things sounds good to me," Tidus grinned, shifting in order to be able to watch both the Heartless and Aeon at the same time, "But that's going to take one freakin' long amount of time. If we've got a way to get back to Traverse Town, we could get someone there to overhaul the gummi ships, right?"

Sora nodded, eyeing the Heartless warily. "Yeah. Cid's got a Gummi business back in Traverse Town. I get discounts, so it should be no problem making the Gummi Ship bigger or merging two."

More and more Heartless were forming, coming up from pools of darkness on the rubble strewn ground. They spotted the ground, there were so many of them the land for miles was more black then the dusty rocky red Sora had become so used to. Sora's eyes narrowed and he held out his hand to summon the Keyblade once more.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Suddenly an explosion rocked the ground and the blast knocked Sora back. A howling wind began tearing through the area and the ground began to crack, flares of obsidian and amethyst bursting from the cracks. These cracks became wider, darkness exploding from the world. Sparks of energy crackled around. Debris blew everywhere.

"I really don't think now's the best time to be fighting! This place is about to be completely annihilated, and we will be too unless we get out of here!" Sora called over the sudden chaos. "I think it's time to GO!"

Arados's eyes widened as what was left of this world began to crumble away, completing it's process of destruction. Suddenly, everything seemed to be familiar. The same loud rumble of the ground falling apart, the same sudden cold as the world began to close into itself and break apart....

For a moment a hilly, open landscape replaced the broken world in Arados's eyes. 'It's happening... again...' she thought, half terrified. She looked to the others, recognizing the same look on some of the others faces. Just as Arados was seeing her own world destroyed, they were watching theirs.

The noise began to get louder in Arados's ears, almost deafening into noise so loud, it was deafening. She wanted to leave this place, now. "Hurry!" she half shouted, backing up slowly, flapping up into the air a few feet to surpass the cracking ground.

"I'm definitely for the getting the hell out of here!" Tidus yelped, jumping away from a fissure that had opened between his legs. He didn't give himself much more time to think, tearing across the landscape back towards the Gummi Ship he's arrived on, and hoped to whatever gods were out there that the ship was still there.

Thankfully, it was, and he scrambled in madly, heart pounding as he watched the world crumble away. It was like watching Destiny Islands fade all over again, which was not something he really wanted to see. He saw some of the others board Arados' ship, and nodded to himself in thankfulness-- they wouldn't have all fit into one ship, after all.

Hitting the buttons to slam the doors shut, he was yanked out of the captain's chair by Sora, who rapidly input the coordinates their destination-- Traverse Town-- into the computer, and began lift-off sequence.

It wasn't until they had completely left the dying world, with Arados' ship in tow that he looked around himself to see who was on the ship with him.

Just his luck, he moaned mentally. It's the bird boy.

This was going to be a looooooong trip.

Yasha gave a panicked yelp as the ground gave way beneath her, the draconic half-Heartless barely launching into the air in time before getting dragged down into the bowels of the doomed world. She immediately hit the ground running a few feet away, dashing with her wings still outspread to make it to the closest Gummi Ship, which happened to be Arados'.

Hoping the girl wouldn't mind a bit off odd company, Yasha grabbed the door with one clawed hand and swung herself inside, landing in a heap on the floor. She dragged herself over to a chair, which she half-collapsed in, eyes swirling.

"Wow...that was....fun..."

---

End Chapter One


	3. dreams 02 p1

This chapter actually took us the better part of nine months to write. It got far to long in the process, but it's setting us up for the next Big Plot Point. Huzzah.

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**Black Dreams Eternal: Chapter Two, part One  
**Written by: Tidus ((Priest)), Sora ((Crys)), Yasha ((Kaya)), Aeon ((Shadowclaw)), Arados, Mozenrath ((Magda)), Lutra ((Syrup)), Aura and Skailer ((Hea))

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Sora's eye was twitching madly as he finally set the Gummi Ship to the ground. He finally released his death grip on the controls.

It had been.....a long ride. A very long ride. Filled with arguing. Lots of arguing. The yelling...it was still ringing in Sora's poor ears. At first Aeon and Tidus had just glared at each other. Eventually they started yelling at each other, and then it came to the point where words just weren't enough. (Those scorch marks and slices in the walls were never going to come out)

The Keyblade Master now turned to glare at the two men, eye still twitching. "Get. Out." He snarled through clenched teeth.

Tidus laughed a bit nervously, from where he was hiding on the far side of the room. Sora had been absolutely terrifying after Aeon had thrown him into the wall-- of course, Tidus had gone berserker which had been what caused Aeon to toss him, so he'd dug some pretty deep trenches into the wall with his spines.

Well, Sora had been frightening when he'd woken up from the little nap Aeon had forced him into. Obviously, Sora had been yelling at Aeon for awhile, and the Bird-boy had shot him a half smug, half relieved look when Sora rounded on him.

So Tidus had cowered until Sora's fury until the Keyblade Master had felt the blonde was suitably chastised. Tidus had decided to hide himself in one of the wall panels, but a look from Sora had caused him to just hide in the corner.

He wanted Yuna. She'd make everything all better. Or maybe Wakka-- Wakka was nice and large and friendly, and certainly NOT scary. Sora's black clothing certainly didn't help the look.

So when Sora practically snarled at them to get out, Tidus got out. Quickly.

Aeon shouted back at Sora.

"Fine!"

With a flap of his wings he propelled himself backwards and out of the Gummi Ship's door. Once he was higher up in the air Aeon relaxed and calmed down slightly. He wasn't really that keen on being cooped up inside. He had wings, so it made sense to make use of them. A couple of good hard flaps shook off any loose plumage from his mid-flight fight with Tidus in the Gummi Ship.

Damn Tidus. He'd stopped Scale Boy from doing any more damage to either them or the Gummi ship as it was.

Flying back down to the ground a good few feet away from Tidus Aeon apologized to Sora for his outburst.

"Sorry about that. I'm not so keen on being . . . well . . . cooped up for that long."

He looked over at Tidus for a brief moment before turning back to Sora.

"Not that badly damaged is it?" Aeon asked.

Sora twitched, obviously still quite irritated. He got out of the Captains seat, surveying the damage. There were large trenches dug into the metal walls, scraps of the metal sticking up from the trenches like little claws. There were various holes in places, some punctured, others melted in. The areas of metallic interior that weren't torn apart were dented in. Scorch marks tinted the silvery walls black. The floor was littered with golden feathers and odd little black scales.

The Keyblade Master twitched and stepped out of the Gummi Ship. "My baby..." He groaned. "You KILLED HER!"

He glared at the two sinspawn, not that he knew what a sinspawn was. At the moment he didn't feel like questioning it. "You two." He snarled. "Are never. EVER. To be in my ship EVER again!"

Before either could reply Sora continued, rubbing his temples. "Until you two can get along I can't really bring either of you anywhere, now can I? We can't fight the Heartless if you two are too busy fighting each other!"

Sora turned away from the two, pulling his hair. "I have no idea what the HELL you two have against each other, but you guys have to GET OVER IT! We can't have you guys constantly arguing and fighting with each other like a bunch of....of..." Sora struggled for the right word. "Little KIDS!" He finally cried, throwing his arms down.

Sora took a deep breath attempting to calm down. "You guys go see if Arados and Yasha made it, okay?" He said. "I'm going to see if I can fix this at all before we get Cid." He looked back at the duo of Sinspawn. "Well? Go."

"I'm not a kid," Tidus grumbled, pointedly ignoring the fact that he was still acting like a child, "C'mon Feather-head. When Sora gets in a mood, you DO NOT want to bother him."

The blonde crossed his arms, tucking his hands into his sleeves and glaring at the woods that surrounded the stone and mortar Traverse Town. High walls wrapped around the town, likely to protect the inhabitants from the wild animals of their world-- not that the walls did any good against beings such as the Heartless. Or, his thoughts turned darker, the Sinspawn and Fiends that had inhabited Spira.

He stared at Aeon out of the corner of his eye. He'd never seen a Sinspawn like him, although for some strange reason, he got the feeling that they had met before. It caused his hackles to rise, and that had been the reason why he-- yes he, as in Tidus-- had picked the fight on the ship with Aeon. It had spiraled out of control pretty quickly.

"Like most everything else in my life," the teenager muttered aloud, before shaking his head, and speaking to his most annoying of companions, "Well, Arados and Yasha's ship isn't here, so it must be at one of the other entrances to the town."

"A most logical conclusion." Aeon muttered, his mind elsewhere.

Tidus really hadn't changed much had he? Aeon shook his head, clearing the thoughts from his mind.

Not my thoughts. Not my problem. he thought.

He turned to Tidus and studied him closely.

"How much would you say you weighed? Cause its much easier to search from the air and kinda pointless leaving you behind if your friend gets as moody as you claim."

"You didn't have to deal with him when Riku and Kairi used to tease him," Tidus blinked a couple times, drawing out of his memories of years ago, before the Heartless, before the End of Days, before Zanarkand and Spira, "Uh... I'm about... a hundred and sixty pounds. A little less than that last time I checked."

It was at this point that it dawned on him that Aeon meant that he was going to take him up into the air-- flying.

Tidus didn't have issues with heights-- he would have been really screwed back on Spira if he had. However, he did have issues with Aeon, which made him nervous.

Staring at the other sinspawn, his brow furrowed and he frowned, "If you promise not to drop me, I won't insult you for the next five hours."

Aeon grinned at Tidus.

"I'll hold you to that and no worries about being dropped."

Aeon mock-shuddered.

"Knowing my luck I'd have to clean up all the mess."

With one last somewhat friendly grin at Tidus Aeon took hold of Tidus' wrists tightly and started to hover off the ground, his wings flapping harder and harder as the pair slowly gained more and more height.

Aeon hovered there in mid air for a moment, getting his bearings, then flew off, heading in the opposite direction to Sora's Gummi Ship.

Secretly he was quite impressed with his own efforts, seeing as it was the first time he'd ever taken a passenger "along for the ride".

---

At one of the other entrances to Traverse Town, a smaller Gummi Ship landed. Inside, Arados was just trying to figure out which button turned the ship off while Yasha was already trying to look around Traverse Town through the windows. She scanned the millions of buttons, trying to block out Yasha's constant stream of talk and remember which button it was.

Arados had spent most of the trip doing three things. One, listening to Yasha, who seemed persistent to talk to her whether she wanted to or not. Two, trying to keep Yasha from pushing all the lit up buttons. And three, spacing out. The most eventful thing that'd happen was probably when Arados had spaced out so much that they nearly hit a really, really, really big rock and had only been saved due to the fact Yasha had taken advantage of Arados's seeming lack of consciousness and pushed a button that just happened to be the artillery button.

So, now landing in Traverse Town, Arados was trying to adjust from black spacey nothing-ness to bright neon lights and apparently lotsa people. And now, she couldn't remember which button shut of the gummi ship! "Um... Yasha?" She turned and poked the dragon girl on the shoulder, "Do you know how to turn this thing off?"

Although it probably wasn't a very good idea to let Yasha have free range of the controls, nothing really bad could happen to them....

.... right?

Yasha perked, ears giving a twitch, and turned to smile hyperly at Arados. "Turn off the shippy? Sure-sure!". Clicking her talons together cheerfully, she hopped over behind the captain's chair, grinning widely. "I watched Sora do the whooole thing!" She blinked, examining the control panel closely for the one flashy button she wanted.

"Lessee, speed, guns, radar--Ohhh there it is!" The perky dragon-girl promptly smacked a glowing green button, and the lights went off in the entire ship. Along with everything else. "See? I can do it!" Yasha happily informed Arados, beaming in the dark.

---

Aeon climbed a bit higher in the air. While he was quite fond of flying, it wasn't so easy with a heavy load in his hands. At least this way, he'd be able to see Arados's Gummi Ship with any luck and head straight for it.

He was half-impressed by the lack of comments from Tidus, save for the occasional muttering about places he knew. Mind you, Tidus might be too petrified to say much else. Aeon knew for a fact his skin gave off a fair amount of body heat; Tidus must be half baked.

The sunlight on Aeon's back felt great up here, and unconsciously he rose a bit higher again. The sky was quite possibly the one place Aeon could really relax and let go, and boy it felt good.

Oops. Better not thinking about the letting go part.

"Hey Tidus!"

He squeezed the boy's wrist slightly to get his attention.

"See them yet?"

Being carried was not exactly the same as riding in an airship, or skidding down a heavy-duty cable to keep Yuna from marrying that freak with the disturbing hair. Hanging from his wrists wasn't all that fun, and for a moment he considered pulling off a stupid trick just to be able to land on Aeon's back for the flight instead of being carried.

Gravity was evil, he mused after a few moments, eyes scanning the ground, "Hey, there's Cid's shop... and that's where I first met Yasha and--" the pressure on his wrists caused him to look up at the man carrying him.

It was vaguely disturbing to be this close to a Sinspawn, and NOT be trying to kill it.

"Not yet. They may not have-- oh! There they are!" He pointed with his foot, given that trying to rip his hand out of Aeon's grip might have resulted in him being dropped.

Aeon looked down at where Tidus was pointing with his foot.

"Finally! My arms were getting kinda tired."

He blinked suddenly, kinda wishing he hadn't just said that aloud.

"Er . . I'd have flown back down to the ground before they got that bad." he reassured Tidus.

Aeon turned so that he was angled in the direction of the other's Gummi Ship. With any luck this event should please Sora somewhat and calm the keyblade wearing boy back down.

Aeon spread out his wings to their full and stopped flapping, using momentum to glide down towards the ground at a fair speed. As they grew closer and closer he started to lean back in the air, simultaneously straining to pull Tidus from his current position below, and upwards so that he was dangling in front of Aeon rather than beneath him.

As they reached about a feet from the ground Aeon let go, the miniscule descent meaning Tidus should land quite happily on his feet as if he'd jumped off a small wall. Aeon landed somewhat harder on his feet, wincing somewhat with the impact.

"Not bad for a first passenger flight. And five hours minus about 10-15 minutes of insult free time left to enjoy." he remarked, turning to smile at Tidus.

"That was kinda fun. Maybe I should fly more people around more often." he mused, walking off in Yasha and Arados' direction.

---

"Now which way is the way out?!" Arados exclaimed back in the ship, now trying to get her eyes to adjust from light to dark. Blinking a couple of times to get the bright, flashing lights out of her eyes, she managed to somehow find the door without breaking anything. Arados was never as relieved to see ground as she stepped out of the Gummi Ship. Not that she'd say that aloud. "Do you have any idea where the others would be?" She asked Yasha, looking back at the Gummi Ship.

Yasha bounced along behind Arados, clearing the doorway of the Gummi Ship with one bound. She grinned childishly to Arados' question.

"You wanna find the others? Okay!"

Yasha stretched her feet out, talons digging into the cracks in-between the bricks that made up the walkway. Leaning backwards and fanning the air towards her with her wings slightly, she took a delicate sniff.

"Well, I don't smell Yummy Hair....but there's.... oh! I can smell Tidus' hair-gel! It's coming this way!" she quipped excitedly, bouncing in place. How she managed to do this with her claws still stuck in the ground was anybody's guess.

"Tiiduuss!"

Tidus laughed at Yasha's enthusiastic greeting as he and Aeon made their way towards the other two. He himself was grinning and waving, "Hey Yasha! I hope you didn't get into too much trouble without me there!"

Of course, they have known each other for very long, but he didn't really care about that. Yasha was his friend, and it was like how things had been with his friends from Spira-- except with less awkwardness at the beginning of it.

Aeon was somewhat some calm and reserved in his greeting.

"Hey."

He stood away from them just standing there. Watching. I don't deserve friends like that he thought bitterly. Not with all this suffering in my head.

He thought back to the battle, when the Heartless had him pinned down, their coldness leeching him of the will to live. What hadn't scared him most was the fact he could have died back then, but more the fact he felt he should have. Aeon shook his feathered head. No. That wasn't his life. Despite the burden he carried he deserved a chance. So why did he feel so wretchedly guilty for being happy?

He walked up closer to the three others.

"Enjoy your flight?"

"Hm?" Arados looked from Tidus and Yasha's reunion, to Aeon. Stepping out of the pitch black Gummi Ship and into the brightly lit town, she'd spent the last minute or two trying to re-adjust to the neon lighting without wincing from the glare.

"It's... really bright here." Arados replied, blinking a few more times as she attempted to take a look at the shops. Looking back to Tidus and Yasha, Arados felt a little uncomfortable and awkward.

Hardly knowing any of them except for probably Yasha, Arados felt like she was intruding. Though after a few seconds she fell back into her revere, looking to all three of them. "Wasn't there another guy with you two?" She pointed out.

---

Sora sighed as he swept feathers, scales, and chips of some odd, black spike-like thing from the floor of the Gummi Ship. There hadn't been anything he could do about the trenches, dents, and scorch marks. The least he could do was get all the junk off of the floor.

"Gee, Cid's going to have fun attempting to fix all this..." Sora muttered as he scooped the pile of battle-produced junk into a dustpan and tossed it outside. Not like anyone was going to notice anyway...

Another sigh escaped his lips as Sora looked back at the trashed interior. He attempted to push some burnt fluff into a tear in one of the seats and only managed to make the fluff crumble to ash.

Sora grit his teeth and rubbed his temples as the voices of the arguing Sinspawn still rang in his ears. Well, now her certainly remembered why he'd occasionally gotten so annoyed with Tidus back on Destiny Islands...

'It's not like I can blame him for being who he is.' Sora thought to himself, a bemused smile gracing his lips. 'I really shouldn't have yelled at them like that...' A flash of guilt ran through his mind as he thought back to just a bit earlier when he'd been so furious. Tidus had looked pretty darn scared. 'That was pretty harsh of me, I didn't have to yell at them so much, even though they were acting pretty stupid, and ruined my Gummi Ship...'

Sora shook his head and decided he'd better go get Cid. It'd be better if he went alone anyway, he doubted Cid would be happy with the damaged Gummi Ship as it was, better to not have him find the culprits for the moment....

After a bit of walking, Sora got to Cid's shop. He blinked as he heard several clangs and bangs coming from the warehouse behind it, as well as several expletives being howled.....

Sora noted no one was at the counter so he shrugged and pushed open the door behind the counter into the warehouse. Might was well see what was making Cid curse more so then usual...

And just as Sora opened the door an explosion rocked through the building, causing various tools and shelves to fall from the walls. Sora blinked as smoke filled the air....along with a few more expletives...

"Um...Cid? Are you okay!?" Sora called into the dimly lit warehouse, coughing as he made his way around the sleek Gummi Ships. "Cid!?"

The blonde haired pilot popped from underneath a Gummi Ship that had been lowered to the ground, face completely black. Only his blue eyes showed, and they shut as he coughed. "Yeah, what the Fing hell you want!?" He snapped. Then he noticed who it was. "Oh, Sora. Sorry." He said, pulling himself from beneath the Gummi Ship and attempting to get some of the black soot off of his face.

Sora raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing in here?"

Cid got most of the black off of his face so it was at least , he continued to rub his face, so most of the soot that he got off ended up back on his face. "I'm tryin' to install this new Gummi Block on one of the ships. I found this weird...substance....thing. I decided to see if it could super-power a Gummi Ship, but no matter what Gummi I try and put the stuff into, the block's not strong enough to hold the stuff."

Sora blinked. What was Cid talking about? "..Okaaaay. Um, anyways, Cid. You know how the Heartless started showing up again right?"

Cid's expression darkened. "Damn those Heartless.." He growled, muttering a few more curse words under his breath.

"Yeah, uh. Well, you see I've found some......friends....to help me...fight them..." Sora trailed off, suddenly struck with a thought. It was HIS responsibility to battle the Heartless. What was he doing asking these people to leave what could be fairly normal lives and go off on a journey that could result in their death or worse? Who was he to ask them to maybe give their lives for this?

"Kid? Sora? Sora!?" Cid rolled his eyes. "F#ing angsty teens and their damn f#ing angst fests...." He lightly whacked Sora over the head.

"Ow!" Sora glared at Cid. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. 'Now's not the time...' "Anyways, there's a lot of us and there's no way we could all fit in one Gummi Ship. One of them has another Gummi Ship, so I was wondering if you could combine mine and hers into a bigger one?"

Cid shrugged. "It shouldn't be a problem."

Sora grinned. "Great! Also....ah.....my ship got.....a little damaged...do you think you could fix it?" He scratched his head sheepishly.

Cid shrugged. "Sure." 'What's the worst shape the ship could be

in?'

"WHAT THE F#ING HELL DID YOU DO TO THIS F#ING THING? THERE'S S$ EVERYWHERE! WHAT THE F# HAPPENED HERE!?" Cid demanded, eyes extremely wide as he pointed at the wrecked Gummi Ship.

"I didn't do it!" Sora cried, waving his arms.

"WHAT THE HELL DID THEN?"

"Um...I picked up some friends who don't really like each other?"

Cid continued to curse under his breath as he paced round the Gummi Ship.

"I swear when I find the F#ing B$#$ who did this..."

"....This...is gonna take awhile then?"

"NO F#ING S#!"

Sora winced. "Um....okay then..." He said, backing away.

Cid took a deep breath. "This is gonna take all F#ing night..."

"..Sorry?" Sora offered.

"GODDAMNIT!"

"...Um...Oh would you LOOK AT THAT!" Sora said brightly. "It's REALLY late, I'm going to go RENT a hotel room.."

"Mother F#ing B#$$#$ I'm gonna rip out their F#$ing spines..."

"...um..BYE!" Sora left. Quickly.

Sora finally jogged up to the rest of the group. "Hey guys!" He said, finally coming to a stop. "Um....I went to Cid about the ships, he said it was okay." He scratched his head.

"He's kinda...busy at the moment.." Sora shot Aeon and Tidus a look. "So I think we should go to him tomorrow." Sora shrugged. 'Unless we all want our heads bit off....'

"So..." Sora looked over towards the second distract. "I suggest we get some sleep, rent hotel rooms or something." He looked back at everyone. "What do you guys say?"

Aeon blinked

"Er inside?"

Truth was he preferred sleeping outdoors in the open. Being cooped up indoors wasn't his idea of fun. In fact being cooped up period wasn't any fun for him. Still, he did owe them for coming along when they did and helping him get off that doomed planetoid thing.

"Sure. Inside it is then."

Aeon's wings twitched slightly, as they often did when he was unsure or uneasy.

Tidus gave Sora an apologetic grin, still feeling bad about having mauled the Gummi Ship in his fight with Aeon. Of course, thinking of Aeon caused the blonde's eyes to slide over to warily watch the other Sinspawn, and he had to bite his lips from making a comment when he noticed the bird's wings twitch.

He'd promised, after all, and Tidus never welched on a promise. Well, almost never, considering that promise he'd made to never pilot anything again... he'd broken that one pretty quickly. Which actually had led to this mess.

Right then, no breaking promises-- having to deal with another Sinspawn without Yuna by his side was his punishment, he was sure of it.

"So where are we staying? There's kinda a lot of us..." the blonde wondered, looking around them in confusion, and scratching the back of his head.

Arados nodded absently, looking around at the various buildings and people. Her eyes rested on one particular creature: a weird little thing with white fur, little wings, and what seemed like a red balloon coming from it's head that kept floating back and forth.

'Why do I have the feeling that things are only going to get stranger?'

Yasha squealed and waved to the fat little moogle waddling around at the other side of the district. Then, for seemingly no reason at all (not that she needed one, this is Yasha we're talking about), pounced onto Sora's head. Quickly making herself comfy before Sora could throw her off, she propped her chin into the spiky-haired one's mess of tangles and beamed in her normal fashion.

"Oi oi, Yummy Hair! Are we gonna stay at the Hotel, huhuhuhuh?"

Sora sighed as Yasha once again jumped onto his head and proceeded prop her chin upon his head. Sora twitched. 'I bet she KNOWS this annoys the hell out of me, she's just PRETENDING to be blissfully unaware of my discomfort so she can high off of my shampoo...'Sora shook his head slightly before deciding to attempt to ignore the dragon-girl.

"Yeah, I guess we're gonna stay at the hotel, the Small House is Cid's place now and I don't think he'd be too happy to have all of us staying in his one room place..." Sora began walking towards the second distract. "So let's go.."

Sora pushed open the doors to the hotel, Yasha still attached to his head. "...Okay, how are we gonna do this?" He wondered aloud. "Each room's prolly enough room for three people, so two rooms should probably be good.."

As travelers checked in and out of the hotel, a small figure watched all from a corner. Some wondered why a child would be alone, or who she was waiting for.

Aura smiled simply, hugging her huge Teddy Bear. Her eyes alighted upon a particular group of travelers; while they might look odd, a look of recognition crossed her face.

Scrabbling up, bear dragging behind her, she ran to Sora. She stared up at him... or, rather, er, his hair. The gravity-defying- spikiness! Where had she seen it before...?

"KITE!" She cried, throwing herself at Sora.

"GAH!"

Sora cried out as yet ANOTHER weight found itself on him, this time in the form of a small girl attaching herself to his waist and dubbing him "Kite".

Sora reeled backwards, swinging his arms to maintain his balance. Somehow he managed to right himself and now stood with a dragon girl and another girl clinging to him. The Keyblade Master twitched.

Sora looked down at the girl. "Would you get o-" He began to demand, but stopped when he realized what he had perceived to be a threat was an innocent looking child, looking up at him with wide, twilight purple eyes.

"Ummm...ahhh.....hello.." Sora blinked, wondering why on earth this girl had tackled him.

Aura stared up at Sora, a little taken back. "Kite? Onii-san?" she repeated, still clinging to him. She smiled, waving her teddy bear around, and whacking a few people in the process. "Hi! Aura!" she said gleefully...

"Whhhhaaa?" Sora blinked slowly. 'Onii-san? Where'd that come from?...Why in the world does this girl think I'm her brother?'

Sora's expression darkened slightly. 'Maybe...he was another victim of the Heartless? Another causality? Another person's world destroyed, another person's life ruined because of me?' He looked down at the innocent young girl, she looked back with eyes that sparkled with what was obviously joy.

'But I'm not your brother!' Sora wanted to shout. 'Your world and him were probably lost because I couldn't get there to help! Your brother might be dead because I didn't do what I was supposed to! He might be dead or worse because of me!' But he didn't.

Those large, smiling eyes, so happy to see him. Sora didn't want to tell her that her brother may be gone. He didn't want to tell her that what she believed to be there was not. She looked so happy....he couldn't tell her...

But to lie, to make her believe he was what he wasn't? Was that right? To make her believe he was her brother?

No. That wasn't right. If she were to find out he were lying, wouldn't that hurt worse?

Sora winced. "Um.......miss?" He said, trying to sound gentle. "I'm sorry... but...." He wanted to look away, he didn't want to see the girls eyes anymore, but he couldn't tear his gaze away! "I'm not your brother. You're mistaking me for someone else. I'm....sorry."

Aura tilted her head slightly in confusion. "No onii-san...?" she trailed off, than hugged her teddy bear close, feeling a little shy. So these people weren't them, after all...

She remembered the scary black creatures that she'd seen when she first came, and following some people onto this ship. It'd landed here... and she'd been in the hotel since. It seemed one of the few places the "glowy eye things" (( A shy smile worked it's way back up. These people were like her friends... the smile got bigger. She looked at Sora, wondering why he seemed so sad. "No sad!" she said happily, waving her teddy bear up by Sora's face. "Aura!" she pointed to herself, than looked at them. She seemed to want to know their names.

Yasha's big, molten gold eyes sparkled. There was no other way to described it, they -sparkled-.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" After ecstatically shrieking into Sora's poor abused eardrums, Yasha hopped off his head, landing gracefully in a crouch next to the small girl. Giving her best, cheerful, disarming smile(Which was hard, seeing as Yasha was half-dragon and tended to scare people a good bit, but she managed to appear harmless somehow none-the-less.), she picked up the white-haired girl delicately in her huge claws and hugged her very gently.

Setting the girl down, Yasha also gave the teddy bear a quick, loving hug, then handed it back. Both of her wings were fully out-stretched as beamed and giggled mirthfully.

"I'm Yasha!"

Aura blinked, staring with large eyes at Yasha. Both arms waved frantically as the little girl began to jump up and down. "Hi!" she said in a sing song voice, waving. Though many things could frighten her, the strange dragon girl reminded Aura vaguely of Maha...

Suddenly, she halted, placing her bear carefully on the ground. She took a few soft footsteps forward, eyes wide again, and... poked Yasha's wing. "Fly!" She said happily, petting it. Giggling, she stepped back to her bear and squeezed it shyly.

She paused, holding the bear now with one hand. The other hand, the one which she touched Yasha's wing with, she stared at. After a few moments, she held it up, head turned slightly. "Glowy eyes?" she asked.

Reason unknown, the little girl seemed to gather more urgency. "Glowy eyes? Scary.... glow!" she said in a almost loud voice, words rushed, pulling both on Sora and Yasha's arms.

Aeon watched the little child wandering around with some interest. Her innocence was . . . strangely pleasant?

Kneeling down near the child Aeon regarded her with his eyes, his head cocked to one side.

"Aura. Pretty name."

He blinked and smiled, a difficult task with a beak instead of a mouth. He hoped he wasn't appearing too threatening.

He looked at her curiously, just watching her and nothing more.

When did humans come in sizes this small?

Yasha happily let Aura yank on her wing, not minding it at all. She blinked in confusion when Aura started talking quickly. "Glowy?..." A soft dawning of realization came to her eyes, which darkened slightly to an angry amber. A low, protective growl rose from her throat.

"Are you okay?! Did they hurt you?!?"

For some reason, this girl felt really, really important to her. The dragonic girl always immediately took to people, but this girl was really special, but she wasn't sure why...

Aura stopped babbling, soft purple eyes turning to look widely at Yasha. The little girl shook her head, soft milk white hair waving back and further. "No... follow ship!" She said softly, the memory of ship, made out of block like things, and people on it.

"Came into-out of-World-Tsukasa-twilight!-ship-watching..." she began to babble again, arms waving frantically as she tried to explain. She calmed down as she looked at each of them in turn. "Awake in world..." she said softly, smiling as if remembering something pleasant, though it was unsure of what she meant. "Saw glowy eyes... scary!" She shivered, "Watch, no hurt. Dark... cold, broken." The last words she said with a weird look on her face, an expression of confusion on her face. It passed as she looked at Yasha and Sora.

"People with ship, and glowy eyes left..." Aura giggled as she came to the next part, "Follow people, came here." she finished.

She clapped her hands a little as she remembered how she'd snuck onto the ship. They hadn't found her, either! It'd been a fun game on Aura's part, though these unknown travelers would of been shocked to find the little stow away.

Sora listened to the girl, watching the expressions flit across her face and quickly moved away as her teddy bear nearly smacked him in the face. 'So... she lost her world.....poor kid, she had no idea what was going on...'

"So...you lost your world, and you've just been waiting here, all alone?" Sora said, more of a statement then a question.

Aura tilted her head to the side, blinking in slight confusion. Tracing a seam absently on the bear, she started to nod, than seemed to change her mind and started to shake her head.

Frowning a little with frustration, she answered, "People on ship brought here... they go away, stay here since then." She nodded, reaching up and tugging on Sora's shirt. "Stay with you?"

Sora blinked down at the small girl as she tugged at his shirt, innocent, twilight colored eyes staring into his.

'I can't let her stay with me...she's just a little kid, she could get hurt! But I can't just leave her here....' He looked down at the girl, whom just blinked up at her. '...There's something about her...that I can't quite place....'

The Keyblade Master's face softened into a smile, a genuine, real smile that hadn't seen the light of day in a long time.

"Alright..." He said, closing his eyes and shoving his hands into his pocket, gentle smile still upon his face. "You can stay with us."

'I just hope....by letting her stay, she won't end up getting hurt....I hope I haven't just made a mistake...'

---

No one would expect this boy to be alive, considering the past few years and what was hidden within the boy. Oh, you'd like to know? Well, if you insist, I shall allow myself to say what the boy secreted. He had half of his heart ripped out of him, leaving an emotionless hole within him that somehow produces emotions. He once had the ability to summon the powerful spirits of his home world, Mahteys, but the spirits dissolved when the world dissipated. There is also one last thing that the boy hid within himself: that he was, in a way, not real.

Enter Skailer, a fourteen-year old mess of a boy. He was around an average height for a preteen, though he was older than it, but he possessed an amazing athletic ability to make up for the loss of height. His ears were like a monkey's and covered in light blonde fur, as was his long, monkey-like tail that he loved to make use of. Skailer's skin was fair from a moderate balance of being both indoors and out for most of his life, and his clothes...by the gods, his clothes were basically rags; with what a white, dirty sheet of a shirt on his torso and filthy blue pants, commonly referred to as blue jeans in your area, I am assuming. He also wore black sport shoes with white ankle socks so as to feel the wind at his ankles when he ran. His most prized possession was, and probably still is, a silver chain fastened around his neck from which dangles an Aquamarine charm. Underneath all of that, however, lay a scar. A physical and emotional scar. Pure white, running clean across his ribs. If anything were to happen in that area, it certainly meant death - or near death, as Skailer had an extremely strong will, even in the face of death and destruction. His hair was a metallic blonde and fell just between the area at the bottom of his ear lobes, but above his shoulders. On the boy's belt was a stainless steel dagger, and fastened on his arm was a strange claw-like weapon that required his grip to function properly. But his deadliest weapon, of course, were his fangs. Not large fangs, they were not long enough to protrude out from his mouth.

Now, I'm sure you have a clear picture of Skailer in your noggin. Let us get on with the details on how he stepped into our little adventure, shall we?

Skailer had just dispatched a couple of heartless: Stealth Soldiers, they are called, I'm sure; last time I checked that is what they were called. Anyways, our little monkey boy trudged through the second district with a heavy heart (he had come so close to losing it again; oh, how he would never want to see another heartless ever again!) and a heavy body. Blood oozed out of his mouth, down his forehead and along one of his arms. However, this would not stop our living example of perseverance from at least trying to get a room (last time he tried the man at the desk told him off for being dirty).

Skailer leaned up next to the door to the hotel, wincing as pain shot through his spine and back again like a shining bullet. The doors would not open. Skailer, being persevere as the gods would allow, slammed his elbow into the door, opening it. Unfortunately, he stumbled head-under-heels in, letting out a cry of, "WHOA!" And upon landing, he struggled to stand.

"Ne riylt...at roltz," He said in ancient Gemian, wheezing. "A yn af zidili kyaf...."

Sora's head whipped towards the sound of the hotel doors banging open and a young voice calling out "WHOA!", followed by the thump of a body hitting the wood floor. He blinked, his eyes focusing on the wounded boy on the floor who could be no older then Sora was when this whole thing had started. Blood stained the boys ragged clothes, crimson splotches upon dirt covered white. Metallic blonde hair fell forward, hiding his eyes from view.

A man whom apparently had been staying at the hotel walked past, gave the boy a glance, rolled his eyes and walked on.

The Keyblade Master careful removed Aura's small hand from his shirt and strode over to the fallen boy. He knelt down on one knee beside him, chains adorning his clothes jingling with the movement.

'..He has ears and a tail......still doesn't beat Aeon in the weirdness department through...' Sora's brows furrowed as he studied the boy. 'Look's like he's been through a lot......'

Sora placed his hand upon the boys shoulder, face showing a small amount of genuine concern through the mask of indifference Sora had constructed for himself. "Hey kid, you okay?" He asked.

Skailer grimaced as the voice, seemingly far away, spoke to him. He looked up at the face before him, eyes barely open, and said, "Zal...rydi mi nit? Euo ziin wynahayl...A gu fut pfum rum, cot..." He pushed his torso off the ground, and pointed at the desk. "Juohg euo nuzt pafghe bit ni y luun, zal? A zryhh kye euo cyjp mrif A yn ychi." With that, Skailer again lay himself on the floor in exhaustion.

Sora blinked confusedly, looking towards the desk the boy had pointed at. ".....you want a room?" He guessed. "...Ah... okay."

He gently took the boys arm and pulled it over his shoulder and slowly helped the boy to his feet, allowing him to use Sora to lean on. 'I sure have met a lot of odd people today...' He thought as he began to stride back to where his friends were.

Yasha blinked slowly, large, golden orbs taking in the appearance of yet another stranger. It was a boy, not nearly as young as Aura, probably Sora's junior by only a year or so. There was something strange about him, about his Heart...

Halved. His Heart was in a complete mess; had a Heartless attempted to steal and only managed to get away with a chunk of it? Or had something far more dangerous occur? Shaking away a chilly sense of sudden ferality, the half-dragon decided to investigate the newcomer.

Sprinting to the desk in a fluid movement that would seem difficult with her lanky legs, Yasha skidded to a stop right in front of Sora and the other boy.

"Oi-oi, Yummy Hair! Did we get another new friend already?"

Skailer clutched his chest and, trying to play the part of tough, stood up but immediately fell over again. "Ne riylt roltz...nyeci at'z ciif ryhdig wul tuu hufb." He shook his head. Indeed, his half- heart was aching so bad he felt like it was about to burst. But he had too hold on longer...just for a little while longer.

His eyes drifted to Sora's. "Euo...rydi mi...nit ciwuli?" He asked, but he then shook his head as pain once again flashed in his body, and lay flat on his back on the floor. "Ooooooooow........."

Yasha blinked slowly, crouching down slightly to get a better look at the monkey-tailed youth. After a minute's close scrutiny, she came to her conclusion.

"Half the Heart is missing, need a Behälter. Will die without one." Nodding to herself once, she slowly reached out to the metallic-haired boy, eyes blank in a trance-like of concentration to form the necessary Behälter.

Skailer watched as those claws reached out for him. He knew where they were going. He knew EXACTLY where they were going, and what they were about to do. Too bad, he wasn't going to allow it.

Skailer lashed out with his claw immediately, screaming. ""Wojpafb Heartless! Aw euo gyli tuojr ne riylt, ul mryt az hiwt uw at, euo zryhh gai yt tri nilje uw ne chygi!" He cried, pressing the tips of the blade against Yasha's scaly skin, eyes wide and threatening.

No one was going to take this boy's heart, no matter how hard they tried. Such was Skailer's impenetrable will.

Tidus took about half a second to take in the scene, before he leapt forwards, teeth bared in a snarl. It was quite the change from the laughter that he hadn't been quite able to suppress throughout the entire scene with Aura. But then, no one threatened his friends while he was around!

His Behälter touched the skin of the monkey-boy's throat. The water- like blade of the Brotherhood was unwavering as it's edge was pressed against the flesh almost strong enough to break it. Frosty blue eyes stared down the other, "Don't you /dare/ twitch, or so help me Yevon, I will take off your head."

Momentarily looking away from the monkey, Tidus glanced at his friend, "Oi Yasha, you okay there?"

Skailer yelped as the blade pressed against his skin, especially on his throat. His face expressed a sad mixture of fear and confusion. "Gu fut rolt ni, zal, khiyzi...A myz vozt giwifgafb nezihw wlun tryt galte Heartless." Skailer began to wriggle backward, but with his hands began pushing the blade away from him. This caused the flesh in his hands to tear and bleed as he desperately pushed the blade AWAY from his throat. "Yli euo ofymyli tryt at az fut y jlani tu giwifg ufizihw?"

Aeon having been watching silently for the most part now moved forward, catching the edge of the sword's blade with his talons and pulling it back from Skailer's neck and giving the obviously frightened boy a chance to breathe.

"Hey hold up a sec. The poor kid's out of his mind and it doesn't sound like he understands a word we're saying. No offence but if I didn't know who the hell anyone was the last thing I'd let you do is touch me."

Aeon knelt down in front of the boy, doing his best not to look threatening, not an easy task for a phoenix/human hybrid sinspawn with talons on his hands and a beak.

"I'm. Aeon." he said slowly and clearly.

"We mean no harm. We're friendly. Friendly. Do you understand?"

He smiled to get his point across, being careful not to make any sudden movements.

Skailer nodded. "A ofgilztyfg," He said, nodding. As long as they meant no harm, he had no reason to fight back. He pointed to himself. "Skailer," He said, referring as to that was his name. He then pointed to Aeon, as if to ask, "What is your name?"

Aeon pointed to the boy.

"Skailer?"

Nodding he pointed back to himself.

"Aeon."

He kept his smile on his face, more genuine than merely to put the boy at ease now. Working past this language barrier was kind of fun. A challenge mixed in with its own reward. He spoke to the others behind him without looking back.

"For the slow witted people here his name is Skailer."

Aeon thought back over the rest of the boy's speech trying to see if he could get anything else from it.

Sora nodded, having remained silent for most of these proceedings. Yasha appearing to be attempting to take Skailer's heart had worried him a bit, but from what she had said, him only having half a heart, she clearly knew what was going on. So, when she had appeared to have been reaching for Skailer's heart, Sora hadn't been too worried. 'She's pretty good in whatever she does, even if it looks if she's trying to do something bad I don't think that would be the case....'

Then Skailer had brought up his weapon to defend himself from what he obviously believed to be an attack. 'So obviously he doesn't know what's going on either...I wouldn't blame him for being scared, he's probably been through a lot. To him, Yasha's probably just a regular Heartless and he's only trying to defend the half of his heart he has left..'

Only half of a heart...how did that come to be? How had he made it this far? Clearly it pained him...yet he was continuing on anyway. From what Sora had been hearing as of late, of those whom had had their hearts return to them, many of them had been without hearts for so long to have their heart back pained them. If that was the case with this boy, then he would be needing one of those things.....a 'Behälter', if Sora's memory served right. So that was probably what Yasha had been trying to do, and Skailer had been stopping out of fear.

Tidus, Sora supposed, had been acting out of friendship, seeing Yasha in what he believed to be danger. Interesting, he'd had only known the dragon girl for a few hours and already he was defending her as a friend. Interesting..

Though now probably wasn't the best of times for Tidus to come running into what was already a pretty crazy situation. Thankfully Aeon was there to prevent what might have been pretty ugly.

Sora shook his head, smiling to himself. Yasha, Tidus, Aeon, Arados....he had to admit, he was growing attached to them, and even Aura, whom he had just met, was growing on him. He to these people some how, in a way he couldn't explain, nor fully understand.

"So your name is Skailer?" Sora asked, raising a brow. "Okay then... ah... Skailer. Can you speak English?" He asked, pronouncing each word slowly, hoping the boy would understand.

Skailer stared at Sora incredulously. "Of course I speak English," He said smartly. "I just wasn't in my right mind to do so yet." Clutching his chest, Skailer attempted to stand up, but he slid and fell a little bit back to the ground. "I've never hurt so bad...You guys wouldn't mind lending me a hand, would you?"

Aeon got up and moved closer, somewhat relieved that the language barrier was gone. Now he could help without Skailer misinterpreting his actions.

Thing is, given their different heights it looked like it would quite difficult to support Skailer by offering an armrest. Suddenly Aeon got an idea. He dropped his cloak on the floor and walked right up to Skailer. He then knelt down and picked the boy up in his arms using his wings to help with balancing the weight.

"You could do with a healer. Those wounds look like they need tending to."

"Oh, oh!" Aura said softly as she stared at Skailer, keeping a shy distance. But when seeing the state of which he was in, her shyness soon evaporated.

Silently, she pattered up to Skailer, eyes wide. She stared at him for a few moments. The little girl was slightly afraid of him, given the scene a few moments ago, but a friendly smile still worked it's way up on her face. "Hurt?" She asked softly, looking to Aeon and than Skailer again, head tilted.

Moment later she pried herself away from her Teddy bear, holding it out to Skailer. "Aura!" She said still softly, but slightly louder this time.

Yasha blinked blankly, tilting her head to the side slightly as she watched Aeon's and Skailer's odd exchange in uncharacteristic silence (> "But..."

Yasha was interrupted a second time when Aura toddled forward with her bear. Smiling gently, she picked up the little girl from behind, and set her down next to Sora. Hopping in front of Skailer, she flapped her wings out for balance and crouched down.

"Half a heart, pain. Need Behälter, stop pain."

Skailer blinked at Yasha. Was this girl out of her mind? He knew - at least, he thought he did - that she was trying to take his heart. She couldn't fool him!

At least, Skailer would have believed all of this if he wasn't in pain already. He vaguely nodded. Wheezing, he whispered loudly, "Aw euo yli buafb tu gu at, gu at xoajp, wul traz kyaf az cibafafb tu cijuni ofciylychi."

Tidus stared at the Heart, "Man... that doesn't look healthy..."

Shifting his attention to the owner of the Heart, he tipped his head curiously as he awaited what the monkey-boy would want his Heart held in. Tidus was sure that the other was finally feeling the relief that was not having to deal with a damaged Heart-- the pain would be going away, right?

After all, he'd felt better after his Heart had been placed in his blade, and Tidus didn't think it would be any different for this boy. So he stood and watched curiously.

Skailer tugged at his necklace. "Af rili, aw euo khiyzi, ny'yn...yfg nypi at xoajp, A gu fut wiih dile buug." His head thudded against the floor lightly. He was looking at his heart - his half-heart - once again; he didn't like the way it looked. It made him dizzy.

Yasha blinked, then blinked, and blinked, and finally blinked some more. The draconic girl looked down to the battered heart, then further down to the boy on the floor, vainly trying to make enough sense out of what he just said for her tiny brain to understand. She leaned over to Tidus, and whispered--very loudly--, "What's he saying? I don't speak monkey!", she whined pathetically.

Tidus scratched the back of his head, brow furrowing as he tried to make the words that the kid on the ground had said make sense. No matter how he rearranged the sounds in his mind, he couldn't really figure it out, either.

"Sorry Yasha, but I don't speak it either," with a little frown, he poked the monkey-boy between the eyes, apparently having completely forgotten that he'd just been holding a sword to the other's throat mere minutes earlier, "Speak English, man. You were speaking it a few minutes ago."

Skailer swatted Tidus' arm away the instant it landed between his peepers. "Gu fut gyli tuojr ni, euo wahtre kolichuug," He said, scowling angrily, then he tugged on his necklace. "Een Heer," he said, which was supposed to be, "In here", but alas, he wasn't fluent enough in English. "Een thiz." His eyes rolled up into his skull. His heart was gone again, and he was beginning to feel it.

Yasha began panicking when the monkey-tailed boy's eyes rolled beyond where she could see. She had never seen someone do that before, and it didn't look entirely healthy, as far as she was concerned. Flapping her leather wings uncertainly, she clasped both clawed hands around the half a Heart, preparing to take a wild stab at it. The boy had--she hoped--been rambling something about the necklace. While this made absolutely no sense at all to her either way, she didn't see anything else in her immediate vision on him that would work properly.

Kneeling in front of the ailing adolescent, Yasha slowly loosened her vice-like grip on the fragile remaining portion of the Heart. She narrowed her eyes in concentration, this would be harder. She hadn't yet worked with such a small object, and the Heart itself was in an extremely delicate situation. The small necklace began glowing an identical shade of red to the Heart.

On such a small item, the diffusion of the energy could be seen much more clearly, in the form of an unnatural glow surrounding the object in question. Unexpectedly, Yasha felt the remaining Heart in her claws begin to break apart. She clenched at it in fear, than had to quickly let go as the Heart attempted to collapse in on itself instead.

The dragon-girl was shocked for a second. 'The beat of the Heart... it's so unstable and erratic! It won't last even a minute more, this boy--..', she felt her resolve thicken, 'he can't die after coming so far!'

Shutting her eyes tightly, Yasha crushed the rest of the Heart into the tiny piece of jewelry all at once. The trinket glowed red hot for a moment, but withstood the energy overload and slowly began to lose the strange coloration.

Sighing with relief, the draconic girl did the only thing she could from a kneeling position; flopped over onto the floor. "Som'body wake me ina mornin'..."

The monkey-boy ceased breathing for a mere few seconds, then slowly let his breath out with a hissing sound. Blinking, his pale blue eyes stared at the ceiling as his eyelids flickered open. 'Where...am I?'

A strange, old feeling welled up within Skailer's soul. It was familiar...like the time he was destroyed as a heartless. It was the feeling that the light was near. It was hiding...but it was near...it was close....

Too close for comfort.

Using his amazing athletic ability to jump, Skailer pushed himself off of the ground, regardless that blood still flowed from his wounds, and leapt onto the counter, drawing his dagger. "Who the hell are you people?!" He cried, glaring in Sora's direction with an expression mixed between horror and anger. "What are you trying to do?"

Sora had watched the Heart Behälter making...process, with a sort of grim fascination, and now blinked up at Skailer, whom was now crouched upon the counter, dagger in hand, glaring at him.

'Well, crap, if a bleeding monkey-boy falling through the doors in pain didn't attract peoples attention, the fact that he just suddenly had the energy to jump on the table and he's yelling at the top of his lungs will.' A part of Sora's mind distantly thought.

Sora blinked again, looking confused. 'He's awfully edgy now.....we helped him and now he's going nuts? Though, I guess I'd be bit nervous too if a bunch of people popped out of nowhere without introducing themselves and then a weird dragon girl proceeds to take out your heart and put it in a necklace.....but he didn't seem so worried before.......what got him so scared that he felt the need to jump onto the table and grab his weapon?'

"Whoa...um... okay... hi there.." Sora said, stepping forward and putting his hands up slightly, palm outward as if to show he had no weapon. "Um...I'm Sora...and these are my friends. We were trying to help you...." Sora flashed a small smile, hoping he wouldn't end up just scaring the poor boy off.

Skailer seemed wary of Sora in particular. He had only been calm because he was hurt. Now the pain was gone; he was not going to surrender so easily. "Ri az tri Light, A pfum ri az..." he muttered, and lowered his weapon - but only a little. "What do you want from me?" He asked casually. "I'm not hurt anymore, so I'm not going to surrender so easily this time."

But what if they were really trying to help him? "Wulbit at," he muttered. "Fu ufi az hapi tryt yfenuli...." Ever since his best friend betrayed him the night of his world's destruction, Skailer wasn't very trustful of other people.

"No more fight! No more fight!" Aura wailed from her spot on the floor, hiding her face in her Teddy Bear, a position she'd been in since they'd started to heal Skailer. After a moment of sniffling she pulled away from her doll. The little girl shivered as she looked at Skailer, than to Yasha, finally to Sora.

She pattered over to the keyblade-weilder, latching tightly onto him and peering over at Skailer and Yasha. The half-dragon girl would probably never hurt her but the scene minutes ago had scared her enough to make her now wary of both. "Heartless take Heart. We not." the child said softly.

A picture of the dark creatures circling around, watching from the shadows, flashed in her mind. She looked up at Sora with wide eyes, clinging to him tighter. "We... help. Right, onii-chan?"

Sora looked down at the child for a moment as she stared up at him with those twilight pools. 'So few words and she said pretty much exactly what I would have taken tons to say..'

The Keyblade Master smiled. A real smile, not the fake smile he'd been using for so long. "Yeah." He said. He looked back to Skailer. "We're just trying to help you. In case you haven't noticed, you're still bleeding. Just sit down and relax, we're not going to hurt you."

Sora blinked, slightly put off by the boys constant stare. "Ahhhh....I just told you, I'm Sora." He said, brows furrowing. 'Maybe he has short term memory loss...or something...'

Skailer nodded. "I see." -Is this guy stupid?- he thought. "What I mean to say is, WHAT are you?" Skailer said it as modestly as he possibly could. And that's saying something.

Funny. Skailer has a hard time being modest around people that sink their claws into him.

"Oh." Sora blinked.

'Oh yes, that could classify as a Tidus moment right there....God I'm an -idiot-.'

Sora flashed a sheepish smile, but it quickly faded as Skailer just continued to stare at him. "...Ahh..." 'How am I supposed to answer a question like that? -What- am I?' "I'm....me, I guess." He said with a shrug, stuffing his hands into his pockets and shifting his eyes to the floor, growing uncomfortable under the constant glare of royal blue eyes. There might have been more to the answer, he -was- Keyblade Master, after all, but he didn't much feel like releasing this information unless he had to.

Aura blinked and peered to Skailer and then Sora. She was slightly miffed why the spiky-haired boy seemed to have trouble answering Skailer's question. She stepped out from behind him, smiling as she stated, "Sora is Sora!" She nodded her head and relinquished her grip on the said boy, twirling in little circles. "He's a SORA!" She giggled.

She stopped and added seriously, "And me a Aura." She grinned again and clapped her hands. But after the few moments of silence that followed her answer she froze and quailed a little, fluttering behind Sora again. The little girl looked up at him with a wavering voice, "Right?..."

Sora looked down at the small girl clutching the thick fabric of his jacket once more. And yet again he felt the smile coming, unbidden, to his face.

"Yeah, that's right." He said. "You're a Aura. And I'm a Sora." He looked back at Skailer. "Is that a good enough answer for you?"

Skailer stared blankly yet seriously at Sora, like a tiger hunting its prey. "You're stalling," He said in monotone, eyes not blinking. "I know your name. But tell me WHAT you are...or I may have to pull my dagger again."

It was very unlike Skailer to be so uptight with strangers, but he sensed the Light...that danger that almost destroyed him long ago. Now he was alive, and he felt it again. He wanted to know what it was, and if this "Sora" was hiding something, he was going to have to get rough.

No. This was the Light he was dealing with. Get rough? He'd die! But lo and behold, Skailer was not the type to give up. No, not at all. His perseverance, however, would someday cost him his life. He had to watch his step.

Unfortunately, that's what he was worst at.

Sora met the boys glacier stare with a calm one of his own. 'I don't get it....what's up with him? He's awfully edgy about something...'

"Alright fine. -What- am I? I'm..."He hesitated slightly, looking towards the floorboards. Could he really say he was Keyblade Master? That was technically Riku's title...wasn't it? But Riku wasn't here. He was locked in Kingdom hearts. 'So I guess the job still falls to me... right?'

Sora looked back up, meeting Skailer's eyes once more and squared his jaw. "My name is Sora." He said evenly. "And I'm the Keyblade Master."

Those last two words echoed in Skailer's ears. It was true! His old senses hadn't failed him! Regardless of his earlier statement, he immediately jumped back into a ready fighting position - a position that looked as if he were about to fight for his life. His icy cold eyes stared into Sora's, alight with both fear and terror, the terror prevailing over the fear. His fanged, clenched teeth bared so that he could breathe through them, and his entire body tensed. His tail wavered in the air for balance as blood pumped swiftly through his veins. His gaze never left Sora, just as his fingers never loosened their grip on the handle of his small yet dangerous weapon.

"Jolziz!" He muttered. "A nozt nypi ryzti yfg izjyki ciwuli ri wafgz uot mryt A yn...." He began to edge towards the door as he growled to Sora in sheer terror, "Put it down...and back away...real...slow- like...and we can both live...."

Sora blinked at Skailer's reaction, confused sapphire staring into glacial eyes. 'What's wrong with him? Why's he so scared all of a sudden?'

He once again held his hands up, palm outward as to show he didn't have any weapons. "What's wrong?" He asked, speaking slowly and carefully, eyes narrowing slightly. You don't mess around when someone's got a dagger pointed at you.

Sora wouldn't summon the Keyblade unless it was absolutely necessary. Skailer wasn't really in a good condition as it was and Sora didn't want to have to hurt him anymore, but if the monkey tailed boy made any move to harm himself or any of his friends, he'd call forth the weapon without a second thought.

'This might get ugly....I hope not, Aura's pretty much attached to my jacket and if Skailer attacks she could get hurt. Can't let that happen...'

"Whoa, Dude, calm down!" Tidus waved his hands, conveniently forgetting that he had a weapon in his hand. The others had to duck to avoid being hit with it.

Staring at the kid who was standing ready to battle, Tidus frowned slightly. What would a ninja do...?

Oh, wait, that's probably not the way to go with this. Use your head, Tidus, my man!

Dropping his hands, he blinked in sudden realization as he saw the weapon, "Uhm... oops. Sorry guys...", then turned back to the monkey- boy.

"Look, if Sora was gonna hurt you, don't you think he'd go after something a bit more threatening first? You know, like Birdboy, Yasha or me? Two Sinspawn and someone who's still mostly Heartless are probably a lot more dangerous than some kid with a dagger."

Yasha frowned slightly, although it changed immediately to a childish pout, and hopped up behind Tidus in agreement. Once he stopped swinging his sword like a maniac, that is. She flapped her wings vigorously, nearly decking the people that were just standing back up from dodging Tidus' Brotherhood.

"Fighting is bad, we're friends! Right? Friends don't fight. Sora's trying his hardest for everyone!", Yasha shook her head suddenly, folding her wings back up.

"Suffering always comes before salvation.."

Having just ducked first Tidus' blade and Yasha's wings Aeon took to the air, using his wings to fly a few paces backwards to avoid any more potential clobberings.

"And if Tidus and I can go as long as we just have without coming to blows then surely you can find it in yourself to sheathe your weapon and relax."

He'd objected greatly to being referred to as a sinspawn again but unfortunately for him it was a truth he couldn't hide from.

"Now we can either go inside and get some rest or sit here waiting for you to bleed slowly to death. Your choice of course."

Skailer's eyes remained locked onto Sora's. "If you were me," He growled to Aeon, "You'd be terrified as well." With that, Skailer threw himself against the door and charged outside, dropping his dagger. Of course, his actions were a but....how shall we put this...stupid, as the heartless were more than likely waiting for him on the other side of that door.

While the main contingent of Heartless in Traverse Town had long since been thrown out, it was hardly a safe place to be at night. There were the few Heartless that still did weasel their ways through the 'cracks' in the magical barrier that surrounded the town- - as was made obvious by Yasha, Tidus and Sora's battle a day or two earlier.

Atop that, there were the generally not-nice people living in Traverse Town. For the most part, the Heartless had been keeping them out of the limelight, but they were still there.

One of those 'not-nice' people smirked as he watched the monkey-boy dart out of the hotel without any weaponry. A husky chuckle passed the silver haired man's lips, "Well, well, well..."

Dropping off the roof-top, the young man waved a hand, and darkness began to pool in a corner. Glowing eyes rose up, and began to form into the familiar shape of a Soldier.

But the pale youth in black was... and artiste, of a sort, and began to mutate the shadowy form of his once brethren. Kaitei's dark laughter echoed throughout Traverse Town as he sent the beast off after Skailer.

Ridding his universe of a pesky child should be simple. After all, he already had the key to winning this war-- he had the Keyblade Master's Heart.

"Well that was dramatic, wasn't it?" Arados said from back inside the Hotel, her first words spoken during the whole ordeal. Most of the time she'd been observing the little girl, Aura... the little child seemed different, ethereal, more than she seemed. But before she could get closer to the child Skailer had made his appearance.

Arados shifted her wings and let her gaze fall upon each of them still left in the Hotel. Her sight lingered on Sora for a second longer than it had the others. 'The Keyblade wielder?... the one who opened the door...' she thought, a small smile flickering momentarily before disappearing again.

Tilting her head towards the way Skailer had run out, wings tensed and her eyes narrowed. "We should follow him," she said, voice little more than a icy whisper, "Something's happening." Her wings arched slightly as she gripped her scythe tighter.

Sora didn't reply to Arados, having already been heading for the door, chains jingling as he ran. 'This isn't good. He left his weapon here, he's injured, and there could be Heartless out there!'

The Keyblade Master bit his lip as he pushed the double doors of the hotel open and charged into the cool night air, boots clicking against the pavement. 'I scared him........he...was completely terrified of me..' The image of the young boy staring directly at him, eyes wide with what could only be described as complete terror flashed through Sora's mind and he winced. It was not something he wanted to see again any time soon. A person completely terrified because of -him-.'..Why? What happened to make him so scared of me?' He wondered.

"...what have I done?" He whispered, brows furrowing. "He was scared of -me-, so he ran, while he was injured, left his weapon, and just ran out into the streets of Traverse Town.......he could be killed and it'll be all my fault..."

Sora bit his lip, squeezing his eyes shut and then opening them. He wasn't going to let that happen. Skailer wasn't going to die. Not if he could help it.

"Sora, Sora!" Aura squealed as she chased after him, regardless of the Heartless danger, chasing after the spiky-haired boy. She caught up with him in time to hear him accusing himself and a small frown appeared on the little girl's face.

"Sora!" She said firmly, yanking on his jacket again. "Heart!" she continued, patting the area where her Heart was with her free hand, "Half black... torn heart..."

Aura's voice died to a hushed whisper as she peered up at Sora intently. "Keyblade... Heartless afraid of Keyblade... torn heart..."

She repeated again. The little girl smiled but did not seem the same as she was a few moments ago... her eyes held a faint light blue hue and didn't seem human, to knowing for a small child...

Then she blinked, and it was gone. "Heart, torn heart, keyblade, heart!" She repeated hurriedly once again, lost in her words.

Skailer froze as he stood outside. Heartless! He reached for his dagger, but it wasn't with him. he stood helplessly as he stared at the heartless' claws, shaking in terror. Slowly he backed away, putting a protective hand over his right set of ribs.

Not that it helped any.

The twisted Heartless lunged for the boy, claws ready for ripping the boy's Heart out of him.

Standing at the edge of the alleyway, Kaitei twitched his fingers like a puppeteer. His shadowy creation followed his movements, and the pale haired youth grinned ruthlessly.

Now this... this was fun.

--- It was times like these that Mozenrath, sorcerer and former ruler of the formally existing Land of the Black sand, cursed the misfortune that was the End of Days. For him anyhow. "End of Days" had become a popular term among the other refugees around here, talking of the time their homes were destroyed and their hearts taken.

They found their hearts. Or they returned to them. He took his _back_, as anyone as attached to their own spirits as he should have.

So no. Needless to say, he was not feeling particularly merciful when he ventured out of his home that day to deal with the racket that'd drawn him out of his reading. Across the way, he spotted another human and curled his lip up in near disgust at their attempts to flee the situation.

"Pathetic," he murmured.

"Yessss." Xerxes slid over his shoulder, and he gave him an absent stroke before ignoring him completely. His familiar tended to stay in the house unless he was going to the First District to sell potions to the Item shop, or to another world for that matter.

With a bound, he took his footing up on the railing separating the street from another below it. He allowed his power to carry him the rest of the way, a bolt of eerie blue-black flame rising from his gloved hand. He came down lightly some distance aside from the commotion, aimed, and fired. The flames leapt from his hand and circled the offending heartless in question before striking it in the center of the back.

"Now, what have I told you wastes of space about loitering?" he mused, half a scold in his tone while a smirk slid across his face.

Skailer kneeled onto the ground, breathing hard and clutching his ribs. His claw blades flashed. As he turned to see the man behind him, he stood warily between the two. At least he still had his claw with him; if there were any around attempting to cause him any harm; he would slice them through.

But where to go? Heartless on one side, the Light on the other...Skailer was stuck; unknowing what to do. Sure, he was just saved a lot of pain, but they might want to use him for something. Skailer stood still, keeping his left hand over his right set of ribs while in his right hand the claw was at ready.

---

Kaitei scowled at the interference. Dammit all!

He'd been so close-- he could almost taste the remnant of soul that the monkey-child called a Heart. So close... ah, well. This sorcerer had taken out his puppet quite quickly; not that it bothered him. A puppet was a puppet, and as soon as he let the strings go, that puppet could no longer move.

Trailing a finger down his cheek, the would-be emperor smiled cruelly, and began to call upon another Heartless. This one was one unlike any seen to the weary travelers in this town of all sorts.

The shadowy-bird form began to draw itself up out of the ground, a set of red prayer beads wrapped around it's neck. It's golden-yellow eyes glowed malevolently as it drew it's sword from it's side.

The Yagudo had been so much fun to corrupt into this Heartless form. Even if he had been under Ansem's control at the time, Vana D'iel had been Kaitei's idea, and he was /so/ glad that he'd managed to take quite a few with him when Sora sealed the End of Days.

---

Lutra had been wandering the first district of Traverse Town since her abrupt arrival. She had no idea where the teleport-crystals would take her, but she certainly wasn't ready for a town light up brighter than Jeuno at midnight. It didn't take long however, for her to find a valuable source of information in the Moogles. Lutra hadn't seen a moogle in years, but they were just as helpful as she remembered. They warned her of the Heartless in the second district, somehow they still managed to sneak through the seal even after the door was shut. Not much of it made sense to her, but they did mention Heartless tended to drop valuable items and munny when killed. Since a decent meal and bed to sleep on seemed high on her priorities, Lutra headed into the second district.

And saw the Yagudo with glowing yellow eyes...

A twitch went through the Mithra's body causing her tail to go stiff and her ears lay back under her hat. Instinct drew her sword for her but temperance made her wait just long enough to cast two spells before rushing down the walkway. Frigid air circled her blade, ice crystals forming in the air as she passed while a thin but tough stone layer covered her skin. She rushed past the Hume in robes and the boy on the ground, bringing her degen up she swung at the Yagudo's side before running past him. She turned and raised her left arm to cast another spell without batting an eye.

"Paralyze!"

Not here, not so far from home...Lutra thought the Yagudo were in disarray with the other beastmen. How did this one appear? Did it follow her from the teleport crystals? No matter...an enemy was an enemy, and this was no different.

About time the people in this city started showing a little backbone! Mozenrath thought with a smirk. He was not the least bit surprised to see his blast had broken the last heartless, nor was he quite so bothered at the appearance of another creature, one that he sensed would probably be a bit more difficult to take down.

Seeing that he had a chance, thanks to the new magic-user's move, he summoned his will for another undertaking. Rather than bombard it with bolts of energy, he would attack it with something more tangible.

In /theory/ anyway.

He crossed his wrists, one over the other, in front of him and muttered low under his breath, the effort bringing a building aura about his lean frame. A few concentrated gestures more, then he threw his gloved hand to the sky. "Hear me, Scirocco!" he boomed, "Spirit of the desert Gale! Hear the voice of your master and /obey/!"

From the sky came a burst of wind that carried a grayish purple mist with it. It tore around the sorcerer like a maddened tornado, neither dislodging him from his place nor breaking his concentration. It then stilled at his side, taking the form of a massive wolf-like creature with glowing red eyes.

Mozenrath reached up to draw an affectionate hand across its muzzle before sending it to do its damage with a simple command of "Destroy!"

The Wind Jackal gave way to another gust of wind and wailed into a spiral around its quarry.

The former Lord of the Black Sand smirked to himself.

Skailer clenched his fists and stood with both claw and dagger at ready (it's not easy holding a claw and a miniature sword in the same hand, but lo and behold, Skailer had mastered that art!), Skailer pushed himself up as he watched the Yagudan Heartless take a beating. He felt an old urge rise within him, but he resisted, lunging into the fray and giving a mighty (well, not mighty, but pretty quick) uppercut near the bird-thing's throat, all the while on constant alert.

His side was throbbing, but he didn't let go of it. No. Vara would have made fun of him. He had to stand strong. And because of that, he stiffly stood and looked about him.

These people...it was hard to tell who was with what side.

Lutra hadn't expected such a show of force from the robed Hume. Apparently he was a summoner, though Lutra had never seen an Avatar like his before...different world, different gods she supposed. Help was help, and she wasn't about to criticize...though really, he should have summoned something that could use ice attacks against a Yagudo. The boy had also thrown in an attack...was he bleeding? She would worry about that later, for now there was a Yagudo to kill... "Holy light, hear my plea," she whispered the quick incantation for Dia while the Yagudo was busy with the Avatar. So long as its attention was off her, Lutra could take the time to cast spells in between swings of her icy sword.

---

In the shadows, Kaitei frowned, eyes growing distant. There was a sense of... urgency... from one of his other puppets, one that built with every moment. Scowling, the youth let the Yagudo's strings go, so that he would fight however he was inclined to.

Right now, the youth was needed elsewhere. Perhaps the Prison World would be getting a new inmate or two. The puppeteer shifted into shadow, and was seemingly absorbed by the stones of the roadway, off to take care of what had called his attention.

---

Although the Yagudo were widely considered some of the smartest of the beastmen, their loss of Heart and subsequence falling under first Ansem's power, and then Kaitei's had stripped them of the majority of their intelligence.

Knii Zaua was no exception to this rule. Where once he would have been an enemy of some strength and ability, where once he would have withdrawn to sniper attack with his magic from a distance, where once he would have actually had a chance to defeat the small group that fought him... well, that chance was no longer existent.

This did not mean, however, that he would go down easy. For in place of the famed Yagudo intelligence, there was almost Orcish stubbornness-- although Knii would have quite vocally denied such a thing.

The Yagudo's attention been caught solely by the Mithra-- this was an enemy it knew, and knew well. While the form was vaguely familiar, the species was intimately familiar. Knii had participated in the destruction of the race, after all.

The paralyze spell was annoying, but easily ignored. After all, it didn't stop him from attacking-- just made him feel like he was plowing through sludge to do so. Her ice-coated sword, on the other hand, bit painfully into his arms and body, drawing cuts across his face. The eerie scrape of metal on bone rent the air every time he caught the weapon across his beak.

The winds that the Summon had created were more annoying than the spell-- the distinct, black feathers that covered his body helped to cut back on the stinging winds, although it, too, was forcing him to move slower than he really wanted to.

It was frustrating, and to be honest, where the wind struck the bare scales of his legs, and the open cuts left by the cat-girl's sword, it hurt like a bitch.

He gave a startled cry when the monkey-thing that his master had originally been toying with joined the fray. The boy struck him in the throat, just beneath his beak. The jarring crack of bone against bone rang through his skull, dizzying the bird-man.

Of course, the Summon had to take that moment to increase it's attack, and the Yagudo found himself slashing his sword at the spiraling winds, hoping against hope that this wind-beast was like the Air Elementals back on Vana D'iel.

With that hope bubbling in his breast, he got his confidence back, and began to fight even harder. A few more moments, it was all he needed-- the Paralyze spell would be wearing off soon, he could feel it.

Or was that... a build up of magical energy came from behind him, and he could hear the familiar sounds of casting. Still fighting, he turned in time to see the last movement of the casting.

He could feel his health begin to lag, and cursed himself for a fool, as the Dia spell began to take effect.

Nonetheless, he was a fool who wouldn't go down without a fight. With an inarticulate screech, the Yagudo threw himself at the Mithra, intending to take her down with him.

Lutra really shouldn't have been surprised to have the Yagudo charge her. She should have been ready for it and leaped out of his path, or had her sword out for him to land on. Instead, she was too busy preparing a blizzard spell and took a direct hit, pushing her back several feet and knocking her on her tail...most undignified. That would have really hurt too, would have...if not for the deceptively thin layer of stone covering her skin and protecting her clothes. Thank the gods for whomever invented Stoneskin; she could take one or two more hits like that, but better not to risk it. "Just die, you monster!" she screamed. Giving the black beastman an angry glower from underneath the brim of her hat, Lutra held out her hand directing a completed ice spell at him. Grabbing up her sword Lutra hopped to her feet, ignoring the ache from where she landed. If the Yagudo wanted to fight with her, then she'd give him hell...

Knii was jarred by the clash of metal-on-metal as the mithra blocked his swing, but he didn't let it bother him. He could feel his strength draining from him-- the dia spell, the summon, the physical attacks from the other two; it all contributed to it, but he refused to let it get to him. Had he had teeth, they would have been clenched as he fought on. As it was, he held his sword in a white knuckled grip, and his world had tunneled down to the mithra.

Again and again, their swords clashed in an ancient dance. More and More, Knii could feel her sword get through his guard to scratch his skin. Dark gray feathers turned black with the blood that soaked them.

His strength was beginning to fail him. A half insane grin crossed his face as he prepared to use Wise Reflection, and whatever weapon skill came to mind first.

It wouldn't be much longer now. The Yagudo was bleeding severely and Lutra could see a lurch in his step. Her own stoneskin spell had worn off, but it didn't matter, a few more strategic hits and--no. Not that...Lutra had seen a Samurai use his Wise Reflection technique before...it was an awesome sight, not exactly a pretty one for the goblin on the receiving end. Lutra only had a second to decide: she could cast a Blind spell and hope the coming chain of attacks would miss, or take a risk that the Yagudo was weak enough she could kill him with a weapon skill of her own. Blind would take time to cast, and there was a chance of it failing... The Yagudo raised his blade, screeching in rage. Lutra had to act. "Shining Blade!" The Mithra took her gamble, swinging her sword the first strike was made across the Yadudo's exposed torso, the second coming down over his arm and chest. A yellow cross of light marked the path of her sword, increasing the strength of her attack. Lutra immediately backed away, unsure if it had worked. There was a clatter as the Yagudo's blade fell from his claws. The beastman groaned in pain and fell at last, clutching the wide gash in his stomach. Lutra stared as the body turned to shadows and faded away, leaving only bloody feathers and a set of prayer beads. Bodies didn't usually turn into shadows...was that a Heartless? Taking a soiled rag from her pocket, Lutra cleaned the blood from her weapon and let it slide back into its sheath. That could explain why it was here to begin with, Heartless can move easily between worlds... Lost for a moment in her thoughts, Lutra calmly reached down and took the prayer beads, breaking the thread and letting the beads drop, she curled the grass thread around her fingers to pocket. She might be able to use that later, to fix a seam in her gloves...

Sora blinked as the fight erupted before him. At first he had considered jumping in, but after watching for a minute he realized these two could probably take care of themselves. It didn't look like the monster would be getting anywhere near the already wounded Skailer with these two around anyway, and he needed to stay there so if the fight did stray this way, he could keep Aura safe.

So he watched, nodding to himself as he beheld the scene of an odd cat-like girl and what he assumed to be a sorcerer of sorts, take down the beast that had appeared in the middle of the second distract.

"I'm going to guess that thing didn't appear on it's own..." Sora murmured as the beast vanished into shadowy smoke. "..wonderful.."

Sora made as if to jump into the main area of the "..but second distract but stopped. "...maybe I shouldn't....I might just...scare Skailer more..." He bit his lip. "..But I can't just leave him hurt like this.......how am I supposed help him if he's scared of me?"

Skailer stayed back, trying to halt the blood flow while the fight raged on. He hadn't noticed that he had almost backed into Sora, but to him it didn't matter.

If only he knew how to summon!

"Ckopex, mre yli euo guafb traz tu ni?" He muttered as he tried to stand....

Snap! went something in Skailer's body and he fell back down again. He certainly wasn't going to be back up for a while. "A ryti euo, Ckopex," He muttered again. "A ryti euo, a ryti euo, a ryti euo."

Sora visibly winced as the younger boy in front of him collapsed, a loud snap coming from his body.

"..that can't be good." He murmured as he ran foreword to catch the boy. However, instead of holding him he carefully lowered Skailer to the ground.

"Okay, now look Skailer." Sora said, looking directly into the boys eyes. "I don't know why you're so scared of me. I'm sorry for whatever I may have done to do that. But all I've really done is be nice to you, I don't see why you're scared. I'm only trying to help you. I can't force you to trust me, but you aren't in any condition to run. If someone doesn't heal those wounds soon you might... die." Sora bit his lip. "Like I said, I can't force you to trust me. But....I can heal you if you let me. I can heal you if you tell me what's wrong." He sighed, then continued.

"Just let me help, alright?"

Skailer would have scampered off, but currently he was in no condition to do so. He simply lay with his back to the ground, eyes wide shut and breath light.

"A badi ok. Euo maf."

He tried to sit up, but the pain would not allow him to do so. Skailer remained still, waiting for Sora's reaction.

Sora blinked slowly. "...um... right, I didn't get that." He said, brows furrowing in confusion. "You were speaking English before, can you tell me whatever's wrong in English, please? It'd make things a lot easier."

"A zyag-AHEM!" Skailer cleared his throat. -Oh yeah. These people don't speak Gemian. D'oh.- "I said, 'You win'," Skailer moaned, exasperated. "Do what you want with me; it's not like I can do anything about it. Ow." He said this as he attempted to move again, but failed miserably.

Sora nodded. "Alright. Now maybe I can finally heal you." He summoned the Keyblade to his hand, deciding to worry about Skailer's reaction later, and closed his eyes, concentrating.

'I hope I remember how to do this.' "Curaga." He muttered, and a sound like bells chiming rang through the air. A soothing green glow glowed over Skailer's body, his wounds beginning to heal themselves, skin knitting together.

The glow faded and Sora smiled. "There, that's better." He said, dismissing the Keyblade.

Skailer winced and closed his eyes, expecting the finishing blow to come any moment. Instead, he felt his pain ease.

"Mryt tri - ri -riyhig ni?(What the - he -healed me?)" Skailer muttered. His worst enemy had -healed- him? This had to be a mistake.

"Mr- um, why? You're supposed to finish me off. This is jufwo- I mean, confusing me."

Skailer's eyes then darkened and he slid a foot back into sparring position. "Oh, this is about Hea, isn't it? Or is it about Mahteys? Alark? Maybe Vara? You can't touch my riy- er, heart, if that's what you want. But I'm willing to make a deal, if it's considerable...." His tail stiffened and eyes sharpened. Obviously he still saw Sora as an enemy.

Sora blinked slowly as Skailer jumped back into fighting position. "..Um....Hea? Vara?...what?" He said, looking slightly confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't get why you would think I'd attack you. Why on earth would I want your heart? I'm not a Heartless. I don't want to hurt you." He frowned slightly.

"I don't get it, why are you so scared of me? What'd I ever do to you?" He asked, raising a brow.

Skailer blinked. "Guiz ri fut linincil?(Does he not remember?)" He muttered, then lowered his dagger and pondered, staring at the ground. "Fu...ri guiz fut. Ri juohg fut rydi. A myz y Heartless yt tri tani...zryhh A tihh ran? Ul zryhh A myat? ... A zryhh tihh ran. (No...he does not. He could not have. I was a Heartless at the time...shall I tell him? Or shall I wait? ... I shall tell him.)"

Skailer looked up. "When I was a heartless, you beat the living hell out of me," He said dryly. "It hurt. Now just feeling -it- near makes me scared....a little! I'm not really scared! Cot...A yn....(But...I am....)"

Sora blinked for a moment, letting this sink in. "Ohhhhhhhh......" He said slowly, comprehension dawning. Of course, all those Heartless he had fought had been people once. It was only natural for Skailer to be scared of him. There were bound to be others out there who would be afraid of him too. And that wasn't a very pleasant thought.

Sora smiled, a slightly weaker one then it had been before. "I'm really sorry. I should have figured all the heartless I fought were people once, and those that were would probably be scared of me... it's perfectly natural for to be scared if I'm the wielder of a weapon that hurt you...I'm sorry." He bowed his head. "If I could go back and stop myself from hurting people I would, but I can't. So all I can do is apologize for hurting you and for scaring you so much." He turned away. "Anyway, sorry. If you want to get away from me now, you can. I don't want you to be stuck around someone you're scared of." With that, he began to walk back towards the hotel.

Skailer blinked slowly. Sora didn't know this? ....of course. He was just a kid. He wasn't supposed to know everything about who he was.

Yet.

As Sora turned and walked away, Skailer felt himself walk after him. :What am I doing?: Skailer wondered. :Why am I following him? ...right, he's not going to hurt me. Do I have something to ask him? Or am I going back into the hotel to get a room? Why am I talking to myself?:

Skailer halted a moment, then looked at the sky as if it were going to give him an answer. Then, shaking his head, he kept striding into the hotel. Hopefully the hotel manager wouldn't throw him out like he did last time.

And that was only two weeks ago.

Mithra ears were hard to keep from eavesdropping. She had heard everything the boy with the strange weapon and the -formerly- wounded boy had said. Glancing out from underneath the brim of her chapeau, she focused on Sora. He had fought the Heartless? So...he was the one that sealed them away and brought the light back to her home? That...boy? He couldn't have done anything alone, but still; he was a boy. A child, young, inexperienced; he should be home playing games not saving the worlds.

She refused to believe it. Yet she was also curious: what if her suspicions were true? She would have to watch the boy, but just watch for the moment. He could also be tied to the heartless in other, more dangerous, ways. Turning sharply and barely giving the mage who had helped her defeat the Yagudo a glance, she began to follow Sora.

Sora blinked as he heard not one, but two sets of footsteps following him. Confused, he turned around to see not only Skailer, but the cat- like women whom had been battling the Heartless creature following.

"....erm...why are you following me?" Sora inquired with a raised brow. He pointed at Skailer. "I thought you were scared of me." He then pointed at the mithra. "And I have -no idea- who you are.."

Mozenrath's attention had been solely on the cat-woman until Xerxes hissed at something else entirely. The monster slew, there was little else going on but the chatter of strangers and --

His eyes narrowed marginally. "You."

He strode up to the boy that'd taken a fairly quiet role in the battle as far as he'd seen. There was little chance of being wrong. The keyblade master. Surely. That in itself left him torn; on one hand, the thirst to taste the destruction of a few more heartless drove him to one string of actions. On the other, there was little else he wanted to do but throttle this boy for his own misfortune. His gloved hand clenched at the reminder, that his heart had been lost. This _whelp_ had been to his world, but that did not save him. Not in the least.

"You wield the key?" he asked, placing himself in the midst of things without being asked or welcomed; if he'd interrupted another conversation, he neither knew nor cared.

Before Mozenrath had 'invited' (which was putting the term lightly) himself into the conversation, Sora had turned his attention to her. So much for not being noticed, though it was hard to be stealthy in boots on cobblestone walkways. He had said, just a touch rudely, that he had no idea -who- she was. That could be easily remedied. "I am Lutra, sixth rank Red Mage of Windurst. My home was recently freed from the heartless...are you the one I am to thank for that?" Nothing she said probably meant anything to the boy, save for her name and question. It was habit to answer with her job and allegiance as well as name. Before she could expect an answer however, Mozenrath approached. Lutra's tail stiffened in irritation. Key...? That was a word she'd heard whispered before on the lips of beastmen and often in fear. So then, this was the boy responsible for saving her world, if a little late about it...unbelievable.

Sora blinked as the man who had been the second competitor in the battle against the Heartless seemed to step out of nowhere, midnight blue cape flaring behind him. Both this new guy and the cat girl- Lutra, that was her name- had inquired the same thing.

The brunette gave a slight sigh. Were things always going to be like this? "Yeah, the Keyblade Master. That's me.." He smiled slightly at Lutra. "..Yeah, I guess that was me... but I had a lot of help... so... yeah.." He really needed to work on talking to people, if things were always going to be like this, he needed to stop stuttering so much. 'I may be an adult, but I still sound like I'm a kid!' He thought.

"Yeah, the Keyblade Master. That's me.."

Mozenrath glowered; the Keyblade Master was no more than a mere whelp, as could have been expected. No wonder his home didn't last all those years ago. He could barely assess whether or not, even after time had passed, that the keeper of the key were any better or worse at his job. Judging from the influx of Heartless lately, it wasn't bloody likely.

Still, the chance to play some greater hand in the destruction of the Heartless continued to command him, and he took a step back to give a deep bow. "I am Mozenrath, and you may consider me at your service, Keyblade Master. I, too, hunt the Heartless and seek to save worlds, but also to research. We may benefit from one another."

"Benefit," Xerxes echoed.

Skailer eyed Mozenrath closely. Now, when I say "closely", I mean he leaned to where their noses were no more than an inch apart and locked his gaze onto Mozenrath's. It his eyes still lingered with the essence of the heartless, and his gaze bore deep into Mozenrath's eyes.

After a while, Skailer leaned back. "You don't look like someone who'd help," He said bluntly. "Neither do you have the behavior. I find it hard to trust people like that. And that means you, too."

With that Skailer puffed out a small breath to blow the hair out of his face and turned, entering the hotel and leaning against the wall, waiting for the reaction.

His tail, however, got caught in the door just as it

closed."AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Skailer screamed in surprise and in pain as his monkey-esque tail became entrapped between the two doors. Futilely, he tugged on it, shouting, "BIT AT UWW! BIT AT UWW!(Get it off! Get it off!)"

Mozenrath took a step back when the other being with a tail came up (or tried to come up) nose to nose with him. Being insanely tall, he gave the boy points for trying, but the attempt in itself earned an angered hiss from Xerxes, which took a stroke to calm.

"You don't look like someone who'd help," He said bluntly. "Neither do you have the behavior. I find it hard to trust people like that. And that means you, too." And then he promptly attempted to blow in his face.

He glared and took a step back, gloved hand tightening at his side. "Then mayhap you should see more of the worlds, half-heart," Mozenrath uttered dangerously, "before passing judgment on someone you know nothing of. Let's not forget that I saved your life." He paused to brush some imaginary dust from his robes. "I believe some gratitude is in order on your part."

Mozenrath raised an eyebrow when the figure gave a sudden shriek, one loud enough that it sent Xerxes diving for the safety of the crook of his arm. He smirked. Served the little beast right.

"Loud enough?!" Tidus grumped, sticking his head out of the door of his room to briefly glower at Skailer. He and the others had decided to settle into their rooms and let Sora deal with the monkey-boy. The sinspawn figured the two must have made up, since Skailer was in the hotel now.

The fact was, Tidus had been dozing, given the fact that he'd finally worn off his normal levels of hyper-ness. He'd be back to normal by morning, but right now he was so very tired. Skailer's shouting had woken him, and it annoyed him to no end.

Stomping, the blitzer kicked open the door to let the monkey's tail free. Dimly, he noted Sora and two others outside the doors, but he really didn't care right then. Actually, he felt about ready to lean against a wall and fall asleep.

A bed would be more comfortable, though, so he started back to his room.

"Man Sora... How can you possibly be still awake?" the words though mumbled were shot over his shoulder, at the still open doors, so they could be at least partially made out.

Somehow in the confusion of grabbing keys and such Aeon had found himself paired up in a room with Tidus. Thankfully the sword-swinging highly-strung one had dropped into bed at a rate of knots, only getting up to investigate a loud shriek from downstairs. Aeon shrugged. As long as he didn't wake up with Tidus holding a sword to his neck it didn't matter. In the space of a day he'd gone from being chased to being in a group, even if the group had obvious sanity issues. Aeon glared at the bed, not particularly wanting to use it. Carefully he slid open the window so that he didn't wake Tidus, then leapt out and landed neatly on a tree branch outside. Feeling more at ease in the open he leant against a branch, wrapped his wings around him and fell asleep, praying for a peaceful night's rest.

Sora blinked as Mozenrath swept into a low bow, offering his services. That being the last thing Sora expected, he stood in stunned silence as Skailer attempted to stare Mozenrath in the eye, then turned on his heel and headed towards the door, only to have his tail caught.

The resulted screech apparently had woken Tidus up, judging from the mumbled "Man Sora... How can you possibly be still awake?" that came from the double doors as Lutra swung them open, apparently going to get a room.

This inquiry seemed to prompt a massive headache, the kind that comes from lack of sleep. '..when was the last time I slept?....day before yesterday? Okay... mental note, sleep more, running on caffiene only hurts far more in the long run...Gah..'

Sora sighed and ran a hand through his hair, glancing at the large clock placed upon the chapel tower. "..Right, okay." he muttered, turning back to Mozenrath. "It's one o' clock in the morning, everyone else is asleep or going to sleep." He looked down at Aura, whom was yawning. "She defiantly shouldn't be up right now." He looked back to Mozenrath. "Is it okay if we continue this tomorrow?" He inquired.

Skailer eyed Mozenrath fiercely. "I'd prefer not to be called that, tallboy," he snarled. "Besides, It's rather rude of you to order us to thank you. You remind me of Vara. He never thinks before he speaks."

Skailer then glanced up at Tidus and grinned sheepishly. "...heh...sorry. And...thanks." Gingerly he held the middle of his tail in one hand and used the other to smooth out the hairs on the lower half, almost as if stroking it. He wasn't in love with that particular limb, he was just quite fond of it. He stared at Lutra and blinked. He blinked again. "....Alark?" He asked, unaware that it wasn't his childhood friend. "Is that you, Ay?"

Abandoning the question immediately, seeing that the woman was indeed someone different; Skailer shoved open the door to the Red Room, climbed up the sides of the bed (much like a squirrel) and fell asleep in the canopy of the bed, the majority of his tail hanging off the side and slowly waving back and forth.

"I'd prefer not to be called that, tallboy."

Mozenrath snorted indignantly, not at the insult but because the little ingrate thought that would bother. He made his best "I am hurt and forever forlorn" expression and rolled his eyes.

"Besides, It's rather rude of you to order us to thank you. You remind me of Vara. He never thinks before he speaks."

"Perhaps you should stop making connections with me, Half Heart," Mozenrath warned with a glare, "And you certainly should not be making distinctions of any kind until you have some better grasp of this language. I /ordered/ nothing, merely suggested, and that comment was directed mainly at you." He straightened his glove. "Try taking your own implied advice. Don't just think before you speak. Start thinking altogether."

He turned to Sora then, glad of the reply. Was it really that late? A subdued yawn from Xerxes gave him the only answer he needed. Ah, well.

"We certainly may continue this in the morning, Keyblade Master," he allowed cordially, then indicated a house across the way. "That is where I am taking up residence. If it would not trouble you to come by in the morning, I will be happy to receive you."

Sora nodded. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then." He said. "Now if you'll excuse me..." He turned and finally re-entered the hotel building, closing the double doors behind him.

'Right... can't sleep yet, gotta get Aura to bed. Don't think I should leave the kid by herself..' Sora sighed and looked down at the child whom seemed firmly attached to his right leg, forcing a tired smile. "Alright Aura, where do you wanna sleep?" He inquired,

Aura blinked up at Sora, stifling another yawn as she rubbed her eyes with the back of the hand that was holding her bear, her other hand tugging imploringly on Sora's pants. "Aura stay with onii-chan... please?" She asked quietly. Her sleepy purple eyes showed a good hint of fear in them.

To be blunt, the little girl was half terrified of the others. Memories of the fight still played in her head and the one she felt safest with was Sora... Aura didn't know why, not questioning it, just glad to be around someone familiar. Though why everything was so familiar around him, she had no idea...

Sora nodded. "Sure, no problem." He said, grabbing the last key from the desk and heading to the blue room, Aura tailing behind him.

"Okay." He said, swinging the door open. "Now you sleep in that bed." He said, pointing at the bed closest to the door. "And I'll sleep on that one, alright? If you get scared or anything just wake me up, alright. Now onii-chan -really- needs to sleep."

With that, Sora stumbled over to his bed, flopped onto it, and was asleep before his head hit the pillow, and for the first time in ages, he really slept, not plagued by nightmares for once. It was a nice change.

Arados took a key and headed to her room, stretching her wings as best as she could in the confines of the hallway. Slipping the hey in the lock and closing the door quickly behind her, Arados didn't bother to turn the light on, leaning against the inside of the door as she waited for her eyes to adjust.

For a moment she felt her lungs constrict and her wings tense as darkness surrounded her on all sides. But soon faint outlines appeared and broke the solid shadow. Arados let out a quiet breath of relief before moving to the bed.

Rather than lie down, Arados kneeled on it first, eyeing a lamp on the nightstand. 'I thought that maybe it was a dream...' she thought, 'And I woke up and I was still in that realm. But it's real enough. Mica...' The anthromorph felt a wave of sadness as she remembered her cousin, lost forever into that hateful darkness...

Shaking her head, Arados remembered the faint spark of light in the darkness. The glimmer of hope that had drawn them out. Had Sora done that? Really?

'What happens to the darkness when it meets the light...?' She thought. Her hand reached for the lamp. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that dulled the girl's usually icy senses, or maybe being around an innocent 4 year old, but she reached out and pulled the lamp string to turn it on.

But no flash of insight came, nor any revelation. Merely a searing glare of light that caused the winged girl to make a muffled yell and shield her eyes hurriedly. All she got from that little stunt... was a headache.

Sighing, Arados flicked the light off and settled into the bed, ignoring the spots that flickered in her vision.

Skailer lay curled in his little ball for quite a while before he actually fell asleep. He didn't have much of a dream; he didn't even remember it, but he was now wide awake.

Were any heartless near?

Skailer leapt lightly off of the canopy of the bed, feet hitting the ground with a soft thud and he flipped his tail in odd directions. Making sure no one paid heed to his awake presence, Skailer strode forward and pushed the door open. Didn't bother keeping quiet, he just wanted out.

He made his way out to the stone road outside the hotel and stared at the sky. There were stars. There were so many stars out tonight. He remembered the nights in his home world getting darker and darker because the light of the stars slowly ceased to illuminate the sky.

But tonight...it was so bright.

Skailer took a deep breath in, and slowly let it hiss back out through his teeth. Sharp, pale eyes scanned the lower parts of the square. No, no heartless around tonight. His work was pretty much on hold.

See, Skailer had taken it upon himself to quite literally kill off his own kind. While he failed miserably as a heartless doing this, when he regained his body he was actually able to do it much more efficiently.

But he never, -ever- made a clean job of it. Hence a stain of crimson on the left arm of his shirt.

"Damnit," Skailer muttered, "And this is the only one I have, too...."

Yasha resisted the urge to squeal randomly, having a feeling Tidus would be cranky if she did. For someone who was shouting louder than the rest of the group combined a few hours ago, he sure got sensitive hearing _fast_. Peeking through the doorway to the room Tidus and Aeon had chosen, she blinked in surprised to find only one bed was occupied, and making very loud snoring noises at that. Ignoring the sound, she peered around, not spotting the firebird anywhere.

"Maybe he went to roost instead?", Yasha quipped quietly to herself. Glancing around one last time, she decided upon the best course of action. Flopping right onto the worn mattress.

Said piece of furniture gave a horrible groan and shuddered from the sudden weight, but miraculously did not break. Flipping onto her side and pulling her wings out of the way, her claws hooked onto the sheets, and once she was appropriately tangled in them, curled up into a ball and fell comfortably asleep.

Aura clutched her Teddy Bear loosely, blinking sleepily at the wall. Any fears the tiny child had were put to rest by Sora on the other side of the room. With one finally yawn, Aura closed her eyes and snuggled happily into the bed.

But not for long.

After a few moments Aura sat up and rubbed her eyes. She gave what could be an annoyed look at her toy before grinning. Obviously stuck with an idea, the child picked up her bear and jumped nimbly off the bed. Crossing the room quietly to not wake Sora, she placed the bear by the door on a chair, then flitted quickly back into her bed, belly flopping into the sheets and curling up again.

Smiling, the little girl slowly fell asleep. She had nothing to worry about with both Sora and her bear watching her.

-- chapter is really long, hit the next button and go to part two of chapter two--


	4. dreams 02 p2

_---Part two of Chapter Two, additional author, Link ((Marisa))---_

Aeon shivered outside on the tree branch outside his window. Not because of wind or cold but because of what he was dreaming. Well more based on memories than actual dreaming. dream All around him the sky was black with darkness. Beasts roamed wildly, slaughtering all in their path. In the center of one mass of creatures was a familiar looking male. Tidus. Frantically hacking and slashing it was clear the boy was tiring fast. Aeon moved to help but some strange force held him fast. As he had been forced to do in past nightmares, Aeon was only allowed to watch the horror. As the battered youth fought his way towards Aeon a voice rang out. Cruel, harsh and full of malice. It took Aeon a few moments to realize the voice was his own. The words were impossible to make out. As Tidus drew closer he fixed Aeon with a mocking stare, mixed with either sorrow or pity, and promptly drove his sword through Aeon's heart. end of dream With a loud, fearful yell of "Tidus!" Aeon fell from the branch, landing somewhat painfully on the ground below. Only two things registered through the shock. It was morning, and he was in agony.

Long since conditioned from his time in the End of Days and Spira, Tidus jerked awake in mid-snore at the sound of his name.

Disorientated, the blonde blinked up at his ceiling in confusion. Since when did he sleep under a roof? Well... outside of temples. And this wasn't a... the events of the past twenty-four hours caught up to his sleep-addled brain, and he sunk into the comfy mattress beneath him.

Oh, that's right. He was in a hotel in Traverse Town.

Hey, wait... who would be shouting his name here? With a grunt, he rolled out of his bed-- though he forgot to put out his arms to brace himself, and promptly landed on his nose-- and stood up. His lips quirked at the sight of Yasha tangled in her sheets.

The open window behind him, however, caused him to shiver. As he moved to close it he looked down and spotted his current favorite nemesis getting up from what looked like a painful landing. Tidus smirked, and called down "I thought you had wings, Aeon. Shouldn't you know how to land by now?"

There was a muffled mumbling noise as Yasha languidly blinked awake, being greeted by the sight of white sheets covering her eyes. Attempting to move proved utterly fruitless, as the thin fabric had her completely bound. Her ears perked up at the sound of Tidus awake in the room, yelling out the window from the sound..

The draconic girl squirmed harder in the protective cocoon of bed sheets, and managed two things at once: rolling right off the bed, and haphazardly clawing the poor sheets to shreds. Stumbling to her scaled feet and seemingly oblivious to several large fragments of white cloth hanging off of her, she ambled over to Tidus.

"Good Morning!" Glomp.

Still latched onto the spiky blond teen in a death-hug, she glanced out the window to see Aeon sprawled out on the cement below. She leaned her head out.

"GOOD MORNING!"

Aeon groaned as he picked himself up from the floor, stiffening again in momentary fear as he heard Tidus' voice. Kicking himself mentally he gingerly folded his wings to his body, wincing in pain as he did so. "Oh drop dead Tidus." he muttered walking around the building so that he was out of sight from Tidus and Yasha. As soon as he was out of view he leant against the wall, visibly shaking. He could swear that he still felt where the blade had sunk through his ribs. And if Tidus ever found out what Aeon really knew, then he might not need a vivid dream to know what the feeling was like.... Carefully Aeon checked over his wings, wincing as he touched the bruised areas. Hopefully nobody would want any free flights from him . . . carrying Tidus before had been hard enough work. His wings now dealt with; Aeon decided to go see who else was up.

Skailer re-entered the hotel, emotions dry and eyes empty. Just his luck for him to stay up all night.

-And you thought you could fool them?-

-Shut up.-

-You can't fool them for long.-

-I'm not going to listen to you anymore. Shut up.-

Skailer sat down and wrapped his arms around his knees and set his head in-between them. His tail thumped lightly on the floor, though to him it was a pounding thanks to his heightened senses. His nose picked up many scents...pain, slight anger...feathers? Bah. Skailer stared down the hall and watched Aeon walk out. He smirked. "Heh. Juohg - ah, couldn't sleep? I know I couldn't."

Aeon shook his head. "Actually I was sleeping fine until the blasted nightmare started." With a grimace on his face Aeon looked down again. Thank god that Tidus hadn't asked why Aeon was yelling out his name in his sleep. Of all the stupid things to do that might make Tidus more suspicious of his origins that was one of the top three. Just under admitting everything out loud and mentioning anything related to Zanarkand or Jecht. Hoping to change the subject before Skailer might ask what his nightmare was Aeon looked up again. "So, what kept you up all night then?"

Skailer shook his head. "Bah. I was just thinking about home an' stuff. Kinda sad thing to think about when...nah." He cut himself off and stood swiftly.

"Where's.....-him-?" He asked. "The Keyblade master? I have a need to talk with him once he awakens."

The Keyblade Master was currently lying on his bed; cover's pulled over him, two spikes of chestnut brown hair poking out from beneath them. He was slowly awakening, but he seemed determined to ignore this and go back to sleep.

No, I do not have to get up. No, the Heartless are not back, and even if they are, I definitely don't have to get up so I can go try and stop them. Nope, everything is perfectly fine, meaning I definitely don't have to get up so I can go to random worlds with people I barely know. Nope. Everything is fine. I'm so tired I could cry, so I'm going to go back to sleep. Yeeeeeeesss....sleep..'

These thoughts having run through his head, Sora fell back into blissful near unconscious-ness.

"Onii-san?" Aura whispered, standing on tip-toe beside Sora's bed and poking him experimentally in the cheek. "Wake, onii-san?" she whispered again. With a tilt of her head she stepped back to view the sleeping boy.

Holding up her stuffed bear, now once again stuck to it like glue, a wide grin spread across her face. Pattering to the other side of the room, she held her bear firmly over her head, before... launching herself back across the room and taking a flying leap onto his bed with the cry, "ONII-SAAAAAAN!"

Landing with a belly flop on top of the sleeping boy, she proceeded to jump up and down repeatedly, alternately whacking Sora with her bear. "Onii-san, Onii-san, ONII-SAN!"

Now, Sora would have been happy to just ignore everything around him and go back to sleep. But Aura jumping on his stomach, whacking him with her bear and yelling was getting rather painfully hard to ignore.

"GAAH!" Sora cried, bolting upright, attempting to shield his head from the bear of doom. "I'm up! I'm up!" He lowered his arms and glared at Aura. However, the problem with extremely cute things, such as young children, as that no matter how hard you try, it's pretty hard to stay mad at them. Unless they happen to really be your siblings, but Sora had never had any siblings so he couldn't relate to this.

So Aura's cute-ness, along with the fact that Sora was really too tired to be mad, softened his expression. "Alright I'm up." He said with a yawn. "....and I need coffee. Yes, coffee would be good.." He added, mostly to himself.

The Keyblade Master ran a hand through his hair, yawned again, threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood, stretching. "Sooo...I guess everyone else should be up..." Because if they're not, I'm going back to sleep.' Sora mentally added. He looked down at Aura and gave a tired smile. "C'mon, let's go get breakfast."

Sora rather liked this hotel because of the breakfast bar thing they had in the mornings. It wasn't the best, but it certainly beat anything the Keyblade Master attempted to cook, so he was all for it. And they had coffee. Coffee was good.

If anyone had bothered to ask Lutra, she wouldn't have understood what the problem was with getting up in the morning. She for example, had been awake since sunrise working to earn her stay at the hotel. She was just sitting down to her own breakfast when Sora came in with Aura attached to his pant leg. It was about time...Lutra was beginning to wonder when, if ever the keyblade master was going to get up. "Good morning," she said before taking a drink from her steaming cup of tea. She frowned and added a bit of milk to it...much better.

Sora gave another yawn, mumbling "Morning.." to the red mage as he shuffled past where she was sitting, heading towards the great invention known as the coffee machine.

After fixing himself a cup of the holy liquid Sora tromped back across the room, flopped into a chair at a random table, and sipped. Coffee was without a doubt, a substance created by God. Or something like that.

It would be rather unfortunate if people started asking Sora questions at the moment, considering he wasn't really coherent enough to give very good answers.

Skailer stared at Sora from his place on the floor and stood. Eyeing the keyblade master suspiciously, he strode over to the coffee machine and fixed himself a cup. He sniffed it.

-Geez, it smells awful....- He thought as he began to take a sip. As soon as the liquid hit his tongue he choked, somehow setting his cup of caffeinated milk onto the counter again without spilling any. He cried out, "Augh! How can you guys DRINK this stuff? It tastes like CHALK!" A look came upon Skailer's face that expressed ultimate disgust.

"I...need some...fresh air...." He added as he raced out the door of the hotel and gasped for breath, supporting himself on a nearby lamppost.

-...hate that stuff....-

Sora blinked slightly as he watched Skailer race out the door. His brain, now influenced with the great thing known as coffee, was working slightly now, so a coherent thought came to mind.

"..How does he know how chalk tastes like?" The Keyblade Master pondered aloud, frowning as he took another sip of coffee.

Aeon snapped out of his thoughts just long enough to catch the tailend of Sora and Skailer's brief conversation.

"Coffee tastes like chalk?"

Aeon blinked. On second thoughts he might skip this strange coffee stuff and just have water.

Sitting on the other end of Sora's table he wriggled his wings again, the bruising now starting to show under the feathers.

"So errr . . . "

Small talk definitely was something he needed to learn.

" . . . how long til this Cid can have your vessel up and running again Sora?"

Sora blinked for a moment, considering the question.

"....I have -no- idea." He said, blinking. "I guess after we get everything sorted out here with everyone we'll go down there and see if the ship's ready...…....though I have no idea -how- we're going to fit everyone." He frowned.

"Is anyone else up?" He inquired, sipping his coffee again.

Lutra pointedly sipped her tea. She had no idea what chalk tasted like, or even what coffee tasted like. Coffee was mainly a Hume invention so she always thought twice about trying it. Not that that had any sort of bearing on the more important matters at hand. She was curious about this 'ship' they were talking about, as well as Cid. There was a Hume named Cid in her world, and he was very well known. She wondered if it was possible that this was the same Cid... Sora's question brought her out of her wanderings, though it wasn't directed at anyone in particular she felt she might as well reply. "If they are not, it would be a good idea to get them up," she said. "I don't like wasting time with important things." Never mind that she hadn't been invited to go along, at this point Lutra felt it was her duty to go with them. Someone had to be the adult and chaperon after all.

Skailer re-entered the hotel with a strange look on his face and closed the door behind him. "What's this talk about a ship?" He asked. Skailer knew a thing or two about gummi ships, but he wasn't a know-all like Cid. He just knew a few things, like how it works, and so forth.

His eyes almost immediately fell to Lutra. -She looks so much like you, Alark,- He thought to himself, ignoring whatever response he might get...slightly.

"Good, you haven't left yet."

Mozenrath expected they would not have left this early, but it took some browsing on the street before he could be absolutely sure where it was that they had settled for the night. He'd risen that morning feeling energized, but somewhat uncertain, as he always seemed to feel at the dawn of something new in his life. He caught sight of the Keyblade Master immediately upon entering and approached him, aware also of those around him, some he recognized from the night before but one or two faces he'd missed.

Xerxes flitted behind him, mostly out of mistrust for new people. The creature swam up to his shoulder the moment he stopped, tail curling close around the back of his neck in an almost protective manner, and he had to stop and assure him with a stroke.

"I bid you good morning, Keyblade Master, to you and your company," Mozenrath said pleasantly enough, bowing cordially as he stopped before him.

"company," the flying lamprey echoed.

Sora nodded up at Mozerath from his seat, still contentedly sipping his coffee. "Morning Mozerath." He said, smiling slightly. Coffee having woken him up, the Keyblade Master felt he was in a rather good mood.

"Err, if you want to sit down and have some coffee or something go ahead, we're waiting on some people and if anyone has any questions or something I'd prefer to wait to answer them til' everyone's here." Sora stated, taking another sip of his coffee.

Yawning, Arados closed the door to her room, ignoring the small pile of glass that was left on the floor. Though she couldn't remember exactly what she'd been dreaming about, all she knew was that it was one heck of a strange dream and she'd suddenly woken up and knocked it over... but she'd never liked that lamp anyway...

'Wait a minute...' Arados thought, pausing. A few rooms away she was sure she could hear voices. Very familiar voices. Entering the said room, Arados stared at everybody assembled there for a few blank moments. '... alright, so it WASN'T a dream.'

"Good morning." she said with something of a sigh.

Mozenrath took a seat as invited and waved Xerxes off to go and find himself something to eat. The more people that came in, the happier Mozenrath was at choosing to come here to meet as opposed to inviting the Keyblade Master's party to sup in his home. He shook his head at the invitation for coffee, having already fed himself, and took a better look around the room.

The tail'd Halfheart was there, no surprise. Mozenrath said nothing, because while he found the boy's attempts to insult him amusing and ill-informed, he was not in the mood to argue with people he considered significantly beneath his notice.

The cat-woman was there, too. Of course, he'd seen bits and pieces of her around Traverse Town before. He had also been aware that she possessed some level of magic. The night before had been the first chance he had been given to witness it first hand. This was the first chance he'd gotten a chance to try and converse, however, and seeing as how they were there for the same reason, he saw nothing stopping him.

"Where did you study?" he inquired.

The astounding lack of fish on the breakfast menu was something Lutra had to lean to cope with. At least the tea was still good, if a little more bitter than she was used to. She barely glanced up from her cup when the mage from the previous night's battle entered. Mozenrath if her memory was right. She watched him approach from beneath the brim of her chapeau, watching also the eel like creature that followed him. Lutra tried not to picture the creature skewered and lightly grilled with a slice of lemon. She focused her attention on the mage rather than the flying eel, he was asking her about where she studied. At first she wasn't sure what he meant, then realizing as a fellow mage he must be talking about magic. It still was not something she was commonly asked, so it took her a moment to answer. "Ah," she put down her cup. "I went to the Aurastery in Windurst. Really it was the only place to formally study magic where I come from, but that didn't mean it wasn't an excellent school."

He raised an eyebrow at that. Aurastery? Windurst? "How very interesting," he murmured. He didn't add immediately that he'd visited there once, shortly after leaving his former world. He had not been inclined to stay long, as the natives were not terribly kind to strangers. "I did not want to think that the End of Days had reached that place. But, since you are here, and have been here a while, I suppose it is true."

"I have not been here for very long...but I would have arrived sooner if I had the means." Lutra wasn't sure how Mozenrath knew about her world, but she supposed after what she's seen anything was possible. She decided it wasn't worth asking in case a headache resulted from the answer. Lutra took another sip of her tea. "I suppose you studied on your own world," she said. Lutra would ask him details, but she would have no use for them. Spending her life completely unaware of other worlds, she saw no reason to ask something that would probably just confuse her.

She wouldn't have gotten a chance at a proper answer anyways-- Tidus had decided to come down from his room, and he did it in true Tidus fashion.

Loudly.

Always having to be the center of attention-- which went back even further than his brief stint as 'Blitzball Star Tidus of Zanarkand'-- Tidus had waited until the door had been fully closed behind Mozenrath for a few minutes before cheerfully kicking it open and striding in. The sound of the door crashing against the wall ensured that most, if not all, eyes were on him.

He smiled cheerfully and waved, "Morning all!"

"As a matter of fact, I --"

CRACKBAM!

Reflexes taking the better of him, Mozenrath's gloved hand clenched into a fist and he rounded, bits of blue black flame rising on his closed fingers as though he were prepared to fire a blast. He nearly turned over the table in his motion as he rounded toward the noise, directly behind him. Already the words for a proper incantation were present and rolling on his lips --

And then he saw it was a companion of the Keyblade Master, and he scowled, all the while not relaxing his stance. He didn't nod to the greeting they were unanimously given.

"That's an easy way to get your fool self killed, boy," he said minimally. He pointed at a chair. "Sit." /And shut up,/ he thought.

Tidus shrugged, cheerfully sprawling himself out beside the annoyed mage, "So's jumping off of an airship. I'm still here, aren't I? So what's the..."

The young man paused mid-sentence in confusion. He'd been looking around the room, taking stock of the people in their kinda large group, and one of the most important people appeared to be missing.

Well, important to him at least. Less important than Yuna, but up there.

"Hey, where's Yasha? She left the room before I did."

Tidus' question was ironically followed by a loud crunching noise as a nearby table that had been placed under an open window collapsed in on itself. One large, red, scaled foot stuck out of the remains of what had been a breakfast table covered with a floral patterned table- cloth. Said foot twitched, and Yasha pulled herself up out of the wooden shambles.

Most luckily for the Key Bearer, who would not have been pleased to receive Yasha's 'friendly affections' so early in the day, the dragon girl spotted her blond friend first. Energetically bounding over to his side, she plopped down on the dining room's floor, looking as if it was the most normal thing ever to sit on the floor. Then again, wings would make most chairs an exceptional nuisance.

"Good Morning!", Yasha happily crowed for the third time that day, and started picking at her teeth with her talons. Removing the source of the irritation, which happened to be an inky black antenna, she popped it right back into her mouth, chewing on it noisily.

"Crunchy!"

Sora stared at Yasha for a moment, not even blinking. ".....O....kay then..." He said slowly, turning to face everyone. "Uh..now that everyone's here..." He stopped for a moment.

Okay, what am I supposed to do now?' The Keybearer thought. He grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Well. I guess if anyone has any questions or anything, now would be a good time to ask...."

...Lutra had spilled her tea in all the commotion. With a resigned growl she reached up to rub the bridge of her nose. The Keyblade master was asking them all something and Lutra snapped up first.

"Where are we going and when can we bloody leave?"

Sora blinked at Lutra. "...I really don't know. We're just heading to the closest world being attacked I guess. And I dunno, we'll leave as soon as everyone's ready.."

Luckily the wide brimmed chapeau hid the twitch in Lutra's eyes rather well. "Well we're all here," she said. "How much more ready do we have to be?" Some leader this boy was turning out to be. Absolutely no spine to take charge, it was a lucky thing Lutra was going with him. She would be amazed if anything was accomplished before her

arrival.Sora smiled slightly. "Well that's true. I guess if everyone's ready we can go..." He ran a hand through his hair, looking slightly nervous. "..I don't know how to say this, so if this comes out sounding stupid someone can whack me over the head, alright?" He said, face turning grim.

"Look. I really have no idea where we're going, I have no idea what's going to happen, I barely have any idea about what we're facing. All I know is I've beaten these things before, and I have to again." Sora bit his lip, considering his next words. "I can't make you all come with me. Who am I to just ask you all to pretty much drop wherever your lives might be going and come on some crazy adventure that could very well fail and end with us all dead or worse?" He looked up at the ceiling, watching the fan spiral above him.

"I don't really have any right to just ask you all to come along, to fight, to risk your lives for this." He continued after a moment, shifting his attention from the fan back to everyone. "But I don't really think I can do this all by myself. This is already has a pretty good chance of us all ending up dead, but going off by myself would be pretty much guaranteeing failure." He sighed.. "So anyway.....I guess what I'm really trying to say is only come unless you're -really- sure you want to do this, if you want to back out now you can. "

The Keyblade Master smiled again. "Well?"

There seemed to be a silence that fell over the room for a few moments. Lutra cleared her throat to break it. "That was very touching Sora, but you really ought to work on your motivational skills," she said evenly before standing up, arms folded over her chest. If it was supposed to have a dramatic effect it was lost on being one of the shortest people in the room. "I can only speak for myself, but I came here with no detailed plans other than find a way to restore my world. Right now, following the one who stopped the End of Days seems the best way to do it." Lutra swept off her hat and pulled it close over her chest where her heart would be and made an elegant bow. "Until my world is restored, you have all my skills to rely on."

Aeon nodded in agreement. "She is right. The longer we wait the more people will suffer. I say we bring their suffering to an end." Maybe then I can atone for the actions of him before me Aeon thought, thinking of Sin and all the evil he could remember Sin committing. "As long as there is life in me I shall aid you in slaughtering these Heartless. Not like I have anything better to do or anywhere else to go. Besides, I still owe you one."

With all the comradeship and sentimentality, Mozenrath felt most surely that he was going to hurl. He brushed some imaginary dust from his robe. "My goals come from a completely different standpoint. I intend to grow and advance as much as I possibly can in the way of power and knowledge. However, the Heartless are responsible for some of my own troubles, so I wouldn't mind seeing to their elimination as well." He smirked. "I believe, then, that we can help each other."

Aura stared up at Sora. Her already large eyes grew even larger. "Me stay." She tugged pointedly on the brunette's jacket, "Me stay with onii."

Here, Aura nodded decidedly. The little girl could not imagine leaving Sora and trusted him completely. As if thinking the same thing, she smiled up at him. "Onii-chan can do it. But not alone. Aura will help Sora."

Mozenrath raised an eyebrow at the tot standing near the Keyblade Master. For the sake of avoiding being stared at, he did not snort in utter amusement when she said she would go along and help. "I wasn't aware that a mission that threatened possible death was suitable for infants," he commented, rising to his feet, then. "Unless she has the power to spontaneously combust and take a few heartless with her -- and more than once -- then I do not honestly see how she can aid the mission." He crossed his arms over his chest self-importantly.

Arados said nothing during or after Sora's speech, but her expression told clearly she was staying. 'What's left but to fight the Heartless...' she thought, then the subject of Aura was brought up. Tilting her head as she studied the little child, she answered, "You weren't here when we first found Aura... but the child had apparently been waiting in the Hotel alone. No one seems to be looking for a lost child, either. So I don't believe we have much of a choice."

Sora nodded. "Yeah...it's not like we can just leave her here all by herself..." That and Aura seemed to be permanently attached to the Keyblade Master, but he didn't feel like voicing this. "She can come... I don't know what she can do, but you never know..."

"She's only about four and it doesn't look like she can fight...." He paused to look down at the chill and smiled. "..but that just means I'll have to make sure she doesn't get hurt now won't I? I wouldn't be a very good onii-san' if I let that happen."

He looked up again. "So that's that, Aura's coming. Anyone else?"

Lutra had nodded in silent agreement when Mozenrath spoke. When Sora had his say, her eyes snapped up and she opened her mouth to protest. Lutra never was and probably never would be a mother, however this reeked of 'bad idea' and the Mithra woman was not going to let it stand. "You cannot be serious," she said. "This child would only get in your way Sora. She would be a liability for our entire group! She is a /child/, and a poorly developed one if she's four years old and talks like she's one. "And in case I'm not being clear enough: you just said there is a good chance one or all of us would die on this mission Sora. You cannot take a little girl into that kind of situation! If you were any kind of 'brother' you would leave her here where she would be safe!" Lutra's voice had raised in tone until she was almost screaming. It was so.... It was such a terrible idea it was all Lutra could do to keep her wits.

Aura's eyes widened considerably, with desperate fear of being parted from the group and Lutra's yelling. "Stay with Sora, stay with Sora!" she whimpered, attaching herself even more firmly to the keyblade master.

She shivered and shook her head furiously, haunted by the memory of a wooded alcove and sleeping, sleeping and never waking up. Morganna and the cat-like character Maha taking her away from Tsukasa... "I won't go! No! NO!" Aura shrieked, slowly panicking.

Something blurred in her vision. Like trying to find shapes in clouds, Lutra now reminded her of Maha. A fleeting thought of using the Data Drain passed through her mind. 'Data drain?' Aura froze in surprise. Oddly enough, she had no idea what that was. But to use it...

The little girl became oddly silent after her outburst and huddled towards Sora, her purple eyes now watching Lutra eerily.

Mozenrath nodded gravely at Lutra's points, finding he liked her the more he hung around her. Very sensible. Selfless but not stupid.

And then the screaming began.

He raised an eyebrow, and he reached up half dazedly when Xerxes shot to his arm in fright. He stroked the trembling creature lazily, all the while scowling, now.

"And we certainly don't need the constant tantrums keeping things behind schedule, either," he commented. "As the lady has said, it would be a danger to everyone, most of all the child." He paused, reminded again of what the Keybearer had said before, and he shook his head. "And don't go taking responsibility of her," he said to him. "/You/ are the one with the Keyblade. You /have/ to be focused on the mission. Dead weight will only distract you and just raise our chances of getting killed and losing a world."

"What do you suggest, then?" Arados interjected, apparently unfazed by the argument so far, but watching Aura very carefully. Her gaze turned searchingly to Mozenrath and Lutra. "Where will we leave her behind? And with who?"

Arados's wings fluttered in agitation. "To place her somewhere, find someone willing to take care of her, would only waste more time.

We've wasted much already." She paused and approached Aura, placing a hand on the little girl's head. "I say we take Aura with us. At least, for the benefit of setting out now and not hours later. One of us can guard the child or take turns."

She tilted her head towards Lutra. "There is no truly safe place. Any world can be destroyed by the Heartless. We can leave her here, thinking her safer, only to have the Heartless come and an even worse fate befall her. If one of us must watch her, I will." She shook her head. "But we must go."

Lutra was unimpressed by Aura's 'tantrum'. That's all it was in the mage's eyes: a fit thrown by a child who thought she might not get her way. Mozenrath had some sense at least...but then what Arados said had some merit as well. At least someone other than the supposed savior of the worlds was volunteering to babysit. Lutra hoped to herself the task of guarding Aura never fell on her shoulders...she was not good with children it seemed. "Very well," she said to the winged girl. "If you are volunteering to watch her in Sora's place then I will withhold my objection. However," she said quickly "I still think bringing a little girl is a foolish idea." One that they could easily regret, she added silently. Time would tell. But for now it seemed 'they had no choice'.

Sora sighed, running a hand through his hair, which was becoming a bit of a stressful habit. Mozenrath -did- have a point, he -was- the Keyblade Master, he really didn't need much more responsibility. Could he watch over Aura and still remain entirely focused on what he had to do? Probably not. She defiantly wouldn't be safe around him, she didn't seem to be able to fight and if everyone was too busy to protect her she could very well be killed. Anyone who was watching over her would be a bit distracted and they could very well end up becoming an easy target if Aura became a handful. Yes, bringing Aura was a bit foolish.

Yet, on the other hand, there didn't seem to be much of a choice. He doubted anyone in Traverse Town would be willing to take Aura in, and the child seemed rather determined to remain attached to his jacket arm. Besides, if they -did- leave her here, what was to stop the Heartless from coming there and killing her, as Arados had pointed out. Yes, it wasn't safe, but there wasn't a really choice in the matter.

This is guaranteed to lead to trouble..' Sora thought darkly. But then again, I seem to attract trouble like a magnet, so it's not like it would be much different. I just hope nothing happens to her. Even if someone else is watching her, she seems pretty much attached to me, and wouldn't be coming if she weren't. So....if she gets killed....no, I'm not going to let that happen, Keyblade Master or not.'

"Alright." He said after a moment. "Aura's coming. We'll take turns watching her, like Arados said. I know it's a bit foolish, but once again I don't think we have much of a choice. So...ah.....if there aren't any more objections...and if no one else is coming..." He trailed off, looking around the room, waiting to see if anyone else was going to say anything.

"I wanna come, I wanna come!!", Yasha shouted happily and loudly enough to deafen anyone in the room with sensitive hearing, not to mention just plain in the room. "Sora goes, Yasha goes, and Tidus goes!", she crowed joyfully, latching onto the arm of the afore mentioned blond. Only after doing so did it occur to her that maybe her 'best friend' wouldn't want to go wandering around the known and unknown universe. Although she couldn't begin to guess why not, from what she knew of him.

"Tidus gonna go too?"

Tidus briefly winced at the lack of feeling in his arm, before giving his friend an incredulous stare.

"Of course I'm going to go! What else am I going to do with my time if I'm not there to bug-- er... help-- Sora?"

Sora blinked, frankly a bit amazed. Wow...they're all coming? I expected at least someone to drop out...then again; none of them seem like the type to just drop out. Maybe it was kind of stupid to ask, it was like I already doubted them. Stupid me.'

"Thanks guys." Sora said with a small smile. "Now, if there aren't any more questions or anything.....ah, to hell with it." He said with a shake of his head, finally standing up and tossing his empty coffee cup in the trash. "Enough standing around, let's get going!"

---

Link opened his eyes, gazing around. What had just happened? One minute, he was in Hyrule... and then Zelda had played the ocarina, and then... falling.

"Hey!" The familiar voice of Navi cried, "Link, wake up! Hey!" Groaning, Link sat up and rubbed his temples. He'd never gotten used to this horrible time traveling... and he had thought it was over, now that Ganondorf was defeated.

But if it was over, then where had Zelda sent him?

Shakily, Link got to his feet.

"You're okay!" Navi cried, "That's great, because I thought you were never gonna wake up! You had me so worried, I didn't know what I would..."

Her voice faded out into a low buzzing as Link tuned her out. What was this place? He gazed around. This was like nothing he had ever seen before... it looked like a town of some sort, and though it was night, everything was lit up like stars. Signs, buildings, even little lights atop giant metal trees. He stared in wonder. Was it like magic?

There was a bell tower high up on the far edge of the... village. And at the other end, a giant staircase was before him, leading up to a giant door labeled in letters he didn't recognize.

Doors are always good; at least they lead somewhere. He started up the stairway, heading for it -- when there was a sudden flash of something black. Before he realized what had happened, he was surrounded by what looked like over a hundred small, black creatures.

Navi shot toward the closest one, hovering close by. "I don't recognize it, but the center of its energy is here -- try aiming for the chest!!"

Link nodded, and reached for his sword.

His hand swiped through air.

In a quick wave of panic, Link reached for his shield.

Nothing.

Longshot. Fairy bow. Megaton hammer. Anything!!

_Nothing._

"Link!!" Navi shrieked as the monsters began closing in on the Hylian. "What's wrong?! Hurry up!"

Link backed away, whirling to see another wave of monsters approaching. He gazed at Navi, frantically trying to wave her away.

"What do you mean?! I can't just leave you...!"

Link shook his head, and that was when the monsters pounced on him. He cried out in pain, trying desperately to throw them off.

"LINK!!" Navi cried, "I-I'll go get help, okay?" She fluttered away from the stairs and to the right, hovering near doors and windows. "Hey! Listen!!" She called, "Somebody! My friend needs help! Somebody, help us!! Hey!!"

Her gaze fell on one of the buildings closest to the stairwell. Its door was opening, and a group of people was filing out! With a bit of hope, she swooped down and fluttered down to eye-level with them. "Hey! Listen!" She cried, "M-my friend, Link -- he was attacked by these monsters... and he's right down there! Please, help him!!" With that, she fluttered away, toward the army of Heartless pouncing on Link.

Sora didn't even pause to think. Someone was being attacked and that someone needed help. The Keybearer immediately tore after the small floating ball of light, deciding to question how the thing was talking and what it was later.

He didn't have to follow the light long, as it seemed her friend was in the center part of the second distract. Weaponless and surrounded by over a hundred Neo Heartless.

Sora vaulted over the wall, landing a few yards away from Link. He began slashing his way through the Neo Heartless, trying to make his way to him.

Link took no notice of Sora as he threw the Heartless from atop himself. Once one was gone, more took its place -- there was no end. Biting, clawing at him... at his chest. What were they after?

Link cleared the heartless off himself for a split second--enough to cover his chest with his arms. That didn't stop them, but it was enough to protect him. He looked over and finally noticed a boy not much younger than himself, fighting through the heartless almost effortlessly. In a short moment, he had forgotten about the monsters, and lowered his defenses. In that moment, he was knocked unconscious.

"LIIINK!!" Navi shrieked, diving into the pile of Heartless as Link collapsed. She fluttered near him, refusing to lose track of him. "Kid! Hey!!" No time for formalities. "He's over here! Don't lose him, please!" She fluttered close to his chest, shining a bright green to attract Sora's attention. She clutched the fabric of the tunic on his chest.

Lutra had been quick to follow Sora when she heard the little glowing ball of light's plea for help. Stopping at the railing where Sora leapt over, Lutra's eyes scanned the mass of Heartless, trying to spot the one they were here to save. She saw the flash of green clothing but it was quickly covered in another mass of black bodies. Lutra lifted her hands, ready to cast a healing spell...if only she could get a clear view! The talking light-ball flew out over the mass, stopping where Lutra last saw the green body. It screamed something, Link? Was that a name? Whatever it was, the now-screaming light served as a spotlight on Link's body. "Help is coming," she whispered and started casting one of her stronger Cure spells.

Link's eyes opened again, and he tried to stand up. The weight of the Neo Heartless on top of him kept him down, however, and he no longer had enough leverage to throw them off. To top that off, his left hand was throbbing, and he couldn't figure out why.

"Link! Come on, stay with me!" As was her luck, the spot she had chosen on his chest seemed to be close to where the Heartless were trying to...do whatever they were trying to do. "Get back, you jerks!" Navi spat, as the heartless tried to rip her off. "You can't have him!" She focused all her energy on glowing a bright white, hoping she could still be seen through all the monsters.

Sora slashed through wave after wave of heartless, but he couldn't figure out where the person was that he was supposed to be rescuing. The light he'd been following seemed to have vanished amid the almost solid wall of black antenna, claws, and glowing eyes.

And of course, the light thingy looks just like one of the Heartless' eyes, just my luck.' Sora thought darkly. Of course, at that moment something white caught his eye. He looked to his right and spotted the now pure white Navi.

Well that helps.' He thought. Too bad most of the Heartless were clustered around Link and Navi. Then again, for Sora that was a bit of an advantage. He held the Keyblade perfectly horizontal, putting all of his weight into it as he built up power.

"Sonic Blade!"

He became a gold and crimson blur, moving almost too fast to see and leaving a path of nothing in his wake. He dashed back and forth several times until he reached the final strike, sapphire and white energy mixing with what power already radiating from the Keyblade.

"Blast!"

The last lunge really was a bit like a sonic blast, the energy blowing up some loose stones in his passing. The Keybearer skidded to a stop in front of Link and Navi. After taking a moment to catch his breath he knelt down next to the currently unconscious Link.

Maybe I should cast Curaga? But didn't Lutra just heal him? He didn't loose his heart did he? I hope he didn't...' Sora thought as he checked over the damage.

"Nn.." Link groaned, opening his eyes and sitting up. His hand and chest were throbbing. A peach and brown blur above him was slowly focusing into the shape of a young boy -- not much younger than himself.

"Hey! You're awake!" Navi cried, nuzzling up to his neck. "That's great!"

Link stood up and wobbled, still only half-conscious.

"Hurry!" Navi cried, "They're gaining on us again!"

Sora grabbed Link's arm and pulled it over his shoulder so he could support the now half-conscious elf.

Of course, now Sora only had one arm to use the Keyblade with, which along with Link's added weight was going to make fighting rather tough. Sora looked up as the Heartless remaining from his attack were gathering together and were coming at both he and Link.

"...crap."

Tidus had just sat back to watch Sora fighting, sure that his friend could take on this small challenge.

Except that... now he couldn't. In having to help the other guy, Sora had limited his ability, and he was hemmed in. With nary another thought, the blonde sinspawn launched himself over the wall and into the mess of Heartless.

His Heart warmed his palm as he swung the Brotherhood about himself in a wide arc, attempting to get himself some room to battle. A smug smirk crossed his face, "C'mon, you think you can beat me?"

Skailer, on the other hand, was perched on the railing, watching the battle with a mixture of awe and disgust. Awe that these people would risk themselves so foolishly for someone they didn't know, and disgust that they would try so damned hard to fight for said stranger.

He hadn't planned on getting involved-- honestly, he hadn't-- but when one of the shadows came up out of the ground behind him, he suddenly found himself shoved off the wall and into the melee with a startled shout.

His knife skittered across the ground, and out of his reach.

Aeon would have no doubt hit Sora or the boy in the middle of the Heartless pile had he attacked before, but now the heartless were scattered and more spread-out... Grinning coldly Aeon took to the air. "Don't you vermin ever learn?" Forming a fireball in each hand he spun in mid-air, using the momentum to launch them both down towards the incoming heartless. In his haste to attack the black shadowy creatures, he failed to notice Skailer being ambushed.

Yasha had been right on Tidus' tail--so to speak at least--into the battle, and almost charged right into the blonde's blade. Taking a quick stumble into the ground, rolling, and jumping back up again all at a dash, the dragon girl didn't hesitate to get right into the thick of the inky black mess. Talons were outstretched and tearing at anything that gave off the stench of Heartless.

Arados followed after the others, using her glaive to slash into the crowd of Neo Heartless before casting Gravira once she had gotten somewhere in the middle of them. Eyeing the fountain and struck with a sudden idea, Arados launched herself into the air and glided over to it, slashing at it to spray a stream of water at the Heartless. When the water began to hit the ground and Heartless, she cast Blizzara to freeze some or used the wind from her wings to whack the pellets of ice at them.

Scanning the mass of Heartless monsters to try and scout out the others, she wondered for a moment exactly who these two new people might be. 'Someone the Heartless either fear or want, anyway....' She mused, continuing her attack, 'For them to use either this large or group or for them to fend it off by themselves.'

Link groaned, barely conscious enough to keep walking. The boy was supporting him, though, and Navi wouldn't let him fall into any sort of deep sleep, what with her constant shouting.

"Hey!! Hey!! Stay awake, okay?! Don't fall asleep, Link! Don't die!" Link wondered if he looked that battered if Navi mentioned dying. Navi turned, facing Sora. "Please, can you hurry? I think he needs help!!"

Sora grit his teeth, jumping back to dodge another Heartless' strike then slashing it down. I -am- hurrying! There's just a lot of Heartless here and it's not exactly easy to fight through them while carrying someone.' Then a thought hit him. Crap, this guy could die before I get through! Gee, I could have just healed him the first place and he might have been able to walk on his own!'

The Keybearer grunted, mentally berating himself for his stupidity. He held up the Keyblade and shouted "Curaga!" There was a sound like bells chiming and a gentle green glow covered Link for a moment before vanishing along with much of his wounds.

There. If he's not healed yet I'll just do it again. I'll just have to stretch my magic a bit...no big deal.' He thought before dodging again.

Link jerked into full awareness as he was healed, remembering his surroundings and walking forward with Sora. The edge of those monsters was just ahead, and in moments he away like a coward? Link didn't want to, but without something to fight with, what other choice did he have?

Navi squealed in delight as Link regained consciousness, and shouted encouragement to both Sora and Link. "Come on! You can do it! It's just ahead!" She turned yellow with glee.

With everyone distracted by the fighting, no one noticed Skailer getting his arse royally kicked as he attempted to make for his weapon.

Though everyone noticed when Skailer's forehead produced a new one for him.

The monkey-boy collapsed to the ground eyes wide open and blank, the kunai buried into his skull almost to the thickest part of it. Even the Heartless paused in their battle to take in the scene.

A calm voice came from the shadows, "Hmm, I didn't think I'd put that much power behind the throw," and a young man stepped out. His hair was silvery-gray, the pair of glasses on his nose glinting in the morning light and hiding his eyes.

He smiled pleasantly as he jumped from where he had been, to over top of Skailer's downed body. He was prepared to plunge his hand into the boy's chest and retrieve the Heart, when he was forced to duck a large, blue sword.

Tidus reversed his swing with a bit of effort, in an attempt to get rid of this new bastard.

The youth leapt backwards, boot coming down to smack the flat of Tidus' blade and send the blitzer off balance. He reached up to adjust his glasses, "I should introduce myself. I am Yakushi Kabuto, Second Commander under Orochimaru to the Emperor Kaitei. Pleasure to meet you."

"Skailer!!" Sora cried, eyes widening in shock as he watched the monkey-boy collapse. He twisted around, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the boy where he had fallen and figure out if he was alright. It wasn't that hard to see, seeing all of the Heartless had stopped for a moment, giving the Keybearer a fairly clear view. What he saw nearly made his heart stop.

Skailer was laying there, dead, kunai knife buried into his skull.

"...No..." Sora whispered, sapphire eyes widening. No, no, no. We're only ten minutes into this and someone's died already!' His thoughts reeled. He'd just met Skailer the night before! He'd just gotten Skailer not to run away from him! He'd only just gotten the monkey- boy to trust him slightly! And it seems I managed to get him killed right after I met him!' The accusing thought flashed through his mind. ...If he hadn't followed...this wouldn't have happened. Maybe if I had stuck around to protect him more...but I couldn't have done that, because I had to come help this guy..."

The Keybearer's thoughts flew back to Link. He bit his lip. Now wasn't the time to be brooding over this! He'd worry about it later. At the moment he needed to worry about making sure no one else got killed.

At that moment Kabuto made his entrance. "I should introduce myself. I am Yakushi Kabuto, Second Commander under Orochimaru to the Emperor Kaitei. Pleasure to meet you."

'...Emperor Kaitei? Who is that!?' Sora wondered. Once again, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. Link seemed to be weaponless at the moment, he'd have to get Link to someplace safe first, and then concentrate on this new enemy.

Sora, noting that they were near one of the alleyways, pushed Link into the first one. "Wind!!" Sora called out, casting Aeroga on the elf before turning and running back towards the battle. "Stay here!" He called to Link.

Lutra was still technically above the fighting, standing on the walkway while the heartless were crowded in the square below. She remained outside the main ring of the battle, casting Fire spells into the mass until suddenly everything stopped. Lutra's sharp ears picked up the sickening sound of a body dropping and Sora screaming Skailer's name.

"Damn," Lutra hissed. She should have been watching her allies closer, she might have stopped.... Running down the walkway, getting closer to Skailer's body Lutra saw the weapon sticking out of his head. There was no way she could have saved someone from /that/. Tidus had already found the culprit and was attacking, without much success. If she couldn't help Skailer, she could at least help defeat his killer. Lifting up her hands, she held them open in front of her. Looking through the curved palms at Kabuto she whispered the words to a Thunder spell. Purple sparks formed between her fingers, then larger, stronger cracks of energy formed on where she saw Kabuto

standing.Link coughed and stared, bewildered, at the wind swirling around him. "Hey! Listen!" Navi cried, fluttering toward Link's nose -- and promptly getting swept up in the Aeora spell. "Aaiiee!"

Link watched Navi swirl around for a moment before finally catching the faerie in his palm. He opened his hands just enough to let her talk, making sure his friend didn't get caught in the wind again.

"You've got to help him, Link!" Exclaimed Navi. With a nod, Link charged forward toward the Heartless.

"No, no, no!!" Navi shrieked, grabbing a lock of Link's hair and pulling him back. He stopped in his tracks and stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Not like that!" Navi explained. "We need to find you a weapon. I'll search around, okay? You get to safety for the moment!" Navi fluttered off into the crowd, and Link stared after her. Finally, he glanced around, wondering how, exactly, he was to "get to safety". Looking up, he found a balcony looming above him. The railing would be easy to climb on to, if he could only reach it. He was never too good at jumping heights.

Climbing, however, was a different story. He noted the window of a closed shop, or house, or something -- there was a flowerbed on the sill, a few feet off the ground. From there, he could reach the edge of the balcony. Quickly, he stepped onto it and took a moment to balance himself, Finally, he jumped. His hand grasped one of the pillars that held up the rail. He started to pull himself up, when something latched onto his ankle.

Looking down, Link saw one of the Heartless had grabbed onto his boot. The Aeora spell had died down! With a grunt, he tried to kick the monster off, but to no avail. He slammed his leg against the window he had climbed, and he heard the glass shatter and felt the Heartless lose its grip. Before any more could come, Link pulled himself onto the balcony. He was safe... for now. With a sigh of relief, Link leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down into a sitting position.

Meanwhile, Navi fluttered over the battle, trying to find something that could be of use. She gasped and stopped short as she caught sight of Skailer. Fresh blood was still pouring from the wound in his head. For a brief moment, Skailer disappeared, and she could see Link in his place. "If I hadn't been there to get help... that could have been..."

Scolding herself to think like that, she kept searching. She had to make sure Link didn't end up like that! And in order to do that, she had to--

What was that? Did she see a knife? It was for a brief second -- the crowd of heartless was blocking her view. Deciding to risk getting closer, she dove into the mess of Heartless, and caught view of the blade once again.

"Finally!" She grasped the handle, but couldn't lift it. With a grunt, she tried to drag it around. She looked up just in time to see a Heartless foot coming down on her. With a squeak, Navi forgot the knife and let go. To avoid being faerie-jam, Navi soared high above the battle.

"How can I get that thing to Link?" She pondered, trying to find someone close by that could grab the weapon. Link's rescuer -- She didn't know his name was Sora -- was too far away. With another sweeping glance, she saw Lutra in mid-spell. Maybe after she was finished, the faerie could ask her...

Navi gazed in amazement at the sparks flying from Lutra's fingers. Not wanting to get caught in the spell, Navi stayed a short distance behind Lutra, waiting until the spell was finished.

Being a faerie, Navi was well aware how much concentration magic required.

Sora was vaguely aware of Link clambering to safety and Navi yelling something about a weapon. However, at the moment Sora's mind was focused on disposing of Skailer's murderer.

He charged forward, gathering energy around him as he went. He pulled his arm back so the Keyblade was over his right shoulder, fist clenching on the handle for a moment. "Strike!" He called out, throwing the weapon.

The Keyblade traveled in a sort of arc, a spinning whirlwind of crimson and gold, aiming for Kabuto.

Still recovering from the rather painful experience of behind hit with a Thunder spell-- not that he knew what it was-- Kabuto's reaction to danger was a little off balance.

He dodged, yes, but the Keyblade still clipped his side and sent him spinning. Crashing into the ground, the silver-haired ninja grunted, rolling backwards and getting back onto his feet. One hand went to his side, pain pulsating out from where the weapon had hit. Removing his hand, he was surprised to notice that his hand was damp, and a glance at the injury revealed a widening patch of darkness.

Eyes widening behind his glasses, the young man cursed in his head. That was a blunt instrument! How had it managed to injure him so?

He found himself reacting on instinct, leaping out of the line of danger as once again, Tidus' sword ripped through the air where his stomach had been. Bouncing back a few times, he grit his teeth. It didn't look like he'd get the time to initiate one of his self- healing techniques until he could get away. And Orochimaru-sama wanted the boy's Heart for the Emperor.

He didn't exactly know why either man wanted it, but he was proud to have been given the task. Out of everyone in the Imperial Forces, he was the one selected-- a member of the Imperial-allied forces of Orochimaru. Someone who wasn't even a full-fledged citizen of the Empire.

Kabuto had to get the Heart before he could leave. Which meant he had to get back to the boy-- so he used his vaunted ninja speed to leap back to the dead monkey's side. As he was jumping, he preformed the seals for the technique he was required to use, and promptly plunged his hand into the boy's chest, in search of the much wanted Heart.

The Keyblade, having at least grazed its target, flew back to Sora's hand. During it's return trip Sora watched as Kabuto leapt to Skailer's side and, after making several odd symbols with his hands, plunged one into the dead boys chest.

Sora's eyes widened. So it was Skailer's heart that this attacker was after! Obviously Kabuto didn't know that Skailer's half of a heart was in his Behälter. The Keybearer didn't plan on giving Kabuto the chance to figure it out.

With a cry, he flung the Keyblade once more. Whoever this new enemy was, he had taken Skailer's life. Sora wasn't going to let him take Skailer's heart too.

As Sora attacked, Navi took this time to flutter next to Lutra. After taking a quick glance backward to make sure Link was okay, she spoke. "Hey, um, can you help me? My friend can help you guys fight, but... he needs a weapon." She paused, glancing worriedly at Link once more, then back at Lutra. "He's the one that the brown-haired boy saved. Link. The only weapon I can find is that knife next to... next to that poor man with the knife... through his head." Navi suddenly had second thoughts about sending Link into battle, but pushed them aside. Link would be okay. "I'd pick it up myself, but I can't lift it. He's on the balcony behind us. Is there any way you can get it to him?"

"What?" Pleased to see the spell had worked well, Lutra was preparing to cast another one when the bright talking light fluttered before her eyes. This close, Lutra could see it was a very small winged creature, but the details were hard to see through the light. Lutra squinted her eyes and listened to Navi's request. It seemed like a lot to ask, just so this Link could help them fight...but Lutra's life as an adventurer had taught her to answer pleas for help. "All right, all right. I'll do it," she murmured. Taking a few moments to spot the knife and the balcony overhead. "And by the way, the brown haired boy's name is Sora." She noticed a momentary clearing of Heartless as Kabuto suddenly landed by Skailer's body and...Lutra shuddered and clutched her own chest self consciously for a moment. Steeling herself, the Mithra gripped the railing and vaulted herself over, letting a stray Heartless cushion her landing. One hand reaching over her head to make sure her chapeau didn't come off, Lutra darted forward towards the knife. Sticking low to the ground so as not to make herself a target for Sora's flying Keyblade, Lutra grabbed the knife in her free hand. She was so close to Skailer and Kabuto now, she was tempted to just use the knife against him... No, she wasn't strong enough, but she could do something else.

"Holy light, hear my plea...Dia!" A holy spell, Dia wasn't the strongest spell in Lutra's arsenal by far, but it was certainly one of the quickest to cast. Pulling back once it was cast, Lutra returned to the railing...kicking off Heartless as she went.

"Hey, tell your friend Link to get down here. I've got his weapon," she said trying to keep from gulping air too loudly. Navi had asked that she bring the knife to Link, yes...but really: all the way across the square, dodging heartless and weapons, then up a building to a balcony? Lutra was getting too old for stunts like that.

"Right!" Navi soared off across the square to where Link was resting.

"Hey! Listen!" She called to the Hylian, "Link! We got you a weapon, come on, follow me! The cat lady in the weird hat has it!" Link got to his feet and bit his lip. His leg was hurting from slamming against the window, but he ignored it. Navi led him along the balcony, leading him a little closer to the First District doorway as he crossed in front of the stairs. Finally, he met up with Lutra, leaning against the railing and catching his breath. Finally, he looked up at her questioningly.

"This is Link." Navi introduced. "Link, this is... um..."

All the way across the square, Link was only a blonde and green blur to Lutra. The closer they got, the better Lutra could see him. Up close, Lutra decided he was actually a sort of funny looking Hume. Or maybe he was just a very young Elvaan, with those pointed ears? No, there weren't any Elvaan anymore...he must just be funny looking. "Link, this is... um..." "Lutra," she said and handed Link the knife, handle first. Polite conversation would have to wait for another time.

"Thank you." Navi sighed.

Link smiled gratefully and took the knife, stepping back from Lutra and holding it up above his head proudly.

"Oh, for goddess' sake, Link!" Navi cried, "We don't have time for that!!"

Link turned slightly pink and stepped further back, giving the weapon a test swing and getting used to the weight and feel of it. Not exactly the Master or Biggoron sword, but it would do nicely. With one last thankful glance, Link leaped over the railing into the mess of battle below.

Aeon had been carefully fireballing the Heartless from his position in the air, finding it more difficult as more people joined the fray.

Finally noticing Skailer and Kabuto's chest exploration the phoenix sinspawn screeched in anger. How in hell did he miss that happening?

Collecting a ball of fire in his hand he hurled it at Kabuto, his rage adding extra force to the throw.

"Get away from him you murderer!"

Link had already figured out that Kabuto was the enemy in this situation, but to be of any use, he'd need to get over there.

However, between himself and Kabuto, there was still an army of Heartless that was attacking his new acquaintances. Link wasn't experienced enough with this new weapon to go directly for Kabuto, but maybe he could at least stop the minor annoyances.

With a loud cry, Link charged forward, slashing the closest heartless with his new weapon. Navi floated near their chests, shining brightly to give Link a clear target. He kept charging forward, but the Heartless seemed unlimited. This was going to be difficult, but not impossible.

Link cleared a small opening for himself and quickly held his sword out to the side, gathering his strength in his left arm. As the Heartless closed in on him, he unleashed the spin attack, which took care of those closest to him. Hopefully, this would help the others stay focused.

He could feel... something... eating away at his chakra reserves, as he jumped out of the way of the flying Keyblade. He didn't know what it was exactly-- except that it would make for an excellent technique to use against unsuspecting nins, case in point himself-- but he knew that if it persisted for much longer, he would be unable to make any sort of escape-- with or without the Heart of his target.

And it was starting to look like he'd be going without it. Though he'd had only scant moments to try and grasp the metaphysical Heart, Kabuto was well versed in exactly where it was settled in the body. No matter the physical form, the Heart was always, always, always in the same place-- the center of the chest.

The monkey didn't have one there, and that confused him. Where else would the Heart be? If you didn't have one, you were a Heartless, but the corpse obviously hadn't been...

His thoughts were scattered as he was rather abruptly hit by a massive ball of flames. The force of the attack sent him flying back to crash into the far wall, before slumping to the ground. The flames licked at his skin, hungrily devouring his clothing.

With a grunt, he rolled away from the wall, intending to put out the flames-- and unintentionally getting out of the way of Tidus' latest wild swing. The watery blade of the Brotherhood slammed home into the ground, lodging itself there for a moment before the blonde haired blitzer managed to yank it free.

Kabuto cursed as he finally got the flames out, dodging another few attacks from his opponents' blades and their unknown jutsu. He had been mis-informed, obviously; he had not known that they had such powerful ninjutsu on their side, and that meant that he would have to rethink the approach.

Without hesitation, he bit the tips of his index and middle fingers. He reached up and gripped the opposite shoulder with his bleeding fingers, "You're strong, I'll give you that," he grinned viciously at the group that still fought the Heartless, "and I am injured. So I'll be off-- for now. I will get the boy's Heart. Ja" and he rammed his fingers into his skin, through the material of his shirt. The blood activated a very specific seal placed there by the Emperor himself.

Kabuto vanished, 'warping' through the remnants of the End of Days and back to Orochimaru's base to report his failure, leaving the group to deal with the Heartless.

How was he to know that he'd left a very distinct trail through the darkness? How was he to know that the half Heartless dragoniod Yasha would be able to sense it?

Tidus snarled turning his attention back to the Heartless now that the murderer was gone. His frustration at not being able to kill the bastard was taken out on the hapless Heartless.

Aeon had watched eagerly from the air as the fireball impacted on Kabuto, chuckling at the man's attempts to put out the flames while dodging blades. What happened next however didn't amuse him. The murderous bastard bit his fingers and then suddenly vanished. Practically dropping back down to the ground Aeon swore. "Where did he go?"

Sora held his hand up high as the Keyblade returned to his hand. All the energy powering it had faded because his attack had missed. And now he wouldn't have another chance to attack Skailer's murderer, as the mysterious youth had vanished as quickly as he had come. The Keybearer wouldn't get a chance to avenge the boy.

Sora's fist clenched around the Keyblade tightly, eyes squeezing shut. He'd barely known Skailer. He'd only known him for a night. Why did he feel so sad? Maybe it was because Sora felt the boy's death was his fault? Sora wasn't really sure himself.

But he was sure of one thing. If he ever found Skailer's murderer, he was going to...what -was- he going to do? With the appearance of Kabuto, it seemed so many more problems had been brought with him. And somehow this felt like just the beginning.

Sora didn't get much more time to think about this, however, as at that moment a Heartless made itself known by jumping at him. Sora narrowly dodged to the side, sliding into his fighting stance, trying to focus on the battle at hand.

He charged at the remaining heartless, charging through one after the other. His face was a sort of poker face, revealing no emotion, save for his eyes, which shown with rage. Inside his mind was reeling, a turmoil of sadness, regret, and slowly building anger. The emotions were swirling within, numbing the ever constant emptiness that he had come to grow used to.

Kabuto was gone, and with him the group's chance for vengeance. The heartless were dwindling in number, but still a force to be dealt with. Lutra remained on the walkway above the fighting, picking off Heartless with her magic. It looked like she was choosing them at random, but really she was carefully minding where her allies where and where their attacks were aimed. Lutra's spells found the heartless that the others missed, not letting a drop of mana be wasted on needless attacks. If it bothered her that Skailer's killer had gotten away Lutra did not show it. This scene of death was not unfamiliar to Lutra, she had seen it happen in battles for years. She had gotten a good look at Kabuto when she fetched the knife for Link, as well as a trace of his scent. The next time, and Lutra was certain there would be a next time, they met he would not escape so easily. "Sora!" she called over the din of battle to reach the Keybearer's ears. "Let's hurry up here. The sooner we clean up the sooner we can hunt down that man!"

Hearing Lutra's call, Sora nodded in reply, though the mithra probably couldn't see it. They really needed to finish this up, and he had just the attack for it...but he wasn't quite sure if it would work. Ah well, only one way to find out...

He just needed permission first, that was all. I'm sure if anyone would be willing, Tidus and Yasha would.' "Tidus, Yasha!" Sora called. "I think I have an attack that can wipe these guys out, but I need power from two friends for it to work! You think you guys would be willing to volunteer!?"

Leaping into the air, the blonde put all his falling momentum behind the swing of his blade, embedding it into the ground after splitting a couple Heartless in half. It was as he was pulling the blade free that he heard Sora's call, and began battling his way back towards the Keyblade Master.

Tidus grinned with all his teeth, "So long as it kicks Heartless ass, I'll do it! How 'bout you, Yasha?"

"OKAY! Let's go let's go let's go!" Yasha crowed from one clearing in the battlefield at the same moment she had decided to kick a Heartless in the stomach with her foot, the talons sticking out on the other side of the dark creature. With a wail of pain it disintegrated, the dragonic girl wasting no time to get both feet back on the ground and then off again with a powerful leap.

Gleefully bounding through the inky black sea alit with dozens of balefully glowing yellow eyes to where Sora's delicious crown of spiky brown hair could be seen, Yasha's eyes wandered over to the prone form of Skailer, wondering why he was laying down like that. Surely taking a nap with all those Heartless around couldn't be a good idea! Everyone had been screaming at that strange Heartless-man, shouting even more bizarre words that the dragon girl knew not the meaning of. Things like 'murderer'. What could that mean? Yasha decided to ask Tidus afterwards, spotting the blond converging on Sora's position just as she herself arrived in front of the Keyblade wielder.

Yasha offered a large, fanged grin to the two, flapping her wings excitedly(and knocking over a Heartless or three in the process). "Com'on com'on, let's go Yummy Hair!"

Sora nodded as Tidus and Yasha moved closer, crouching low.

"Courage!" He called out, rearing back, Keyblade held high. Both Yasha and Tidus glowed red for a moment. The glow then drained from both of them, along with much of their energy. Both streams of crimson converged at the Keyblade, and then vanished into the weapon. Once again, the gold and crimson glow sparked around the Key, the gold solidifying and the entire area becoming bathed in red. Sora flipped upwards then plunged the Keyblade into the ground, swinging around as red and white light gathered around him. His feet came down on a great, light-filled crest and the energy exploded everywhere, enveloping the Heartless and momentarily blinding everyone.

It eventually dissipated, gold sparkles lifting in the air and the red fading away, not a single Heartless remaining. Sora pulled the Keyblade from the ground, dismissing it with a flash of light.

He didn't really need to think about what to do next, it was obvious. Skailer had been killed, and they needed to bring justice to the one responsible. The question was simply how to find him. Who knew how many worlds were out there? Kabuto could easily be on any of them. But Yasha may have been able to sense him...

"Yasha? You know that man who disappeared? Since you can sense darkness and all, can you sense where he went?" Sora asked.

Yasha blinked dizzily for a moment, still attempting to recover from the energy drainage. Shaking her head, sending long strands of black hair flying, she focused her limited attention span on what Sora seemed to be addressing to her. She promptly blinked again.

"Man? What man? You mean that Heartless-man? That wasn't a man, just - looked- like one." The dragonic girl commented sagely. Or at least as intelligent as she got. This was Yasha, after all.

Sora frowned. 'Not human?' He than shook his head. That wasn't important now. What mattered was hunting down the man. "Yes, the Heartless-man! Can you sense where he is!?" He demanded.

Yasha was slightly puzzled at Sora's harsh tone, but decided to ignore it. Maybe he'd cheer up a little when she told him! She bobbed her head energetically, hopping a little."Suresure! Heartless-man left his stink all over the place! Inky black mess." To emphasize her point, she pointed up in a westerly direction in the forever-starry night sky. "He's thataway!"

Never once did it occur to the half-Heartless that she happened to be pointing at half a dozen or so tiny specks in the sky at once.

Sora nodded, saying nothing. Yasha had gotten them to the world where Aeon was just fine; he trusted she would be able to point them in the right direction. She would show him where Skailer's murderer went.

He wasn't standing too far from Skailer's body, only a few yards away. So after a moment of silence, he began to walk towards the fallen boy.

The quiet after the chaos of battle was almost unbearable, he swore his footsteps sounded a lot louder then they should have. His breathing was a bit heavier then usual after fighting, and he could feel his sweat had dampened his clothes. He was shaking slightly, though he wasn't sure why. Thoughts were rushing trough his head, a swirling mess of emotion, accusations, and memories.

He finally reached Skailer's body and got a good look at his face. Shocked, empty eyes stared back at him, a small pool of blood now coating a portion of his hair and the

ground.Sora slumped to his knees, shaking slightly. He'd seen much over the past few years, done many things, but there wasn't anything that could have prepared him for this sight. A sight he'd likely be carrying to the grave.

'I'm sorry!' He wanted to say, though of course he knew the boy couldn't hear him. I didn't mean to get you killed! It's all my fault and I'm sorry!' But of course he didn't speak this. There wasn't a point to it.

'...it's all my fault, and there's nothing I can do to fix it. But...if I can't fix it...' He thought, eyes drifting to Skailer's Heart Behälter, the sapphire jewel hanging from a chain around his neck. ...then I'll find the guy who did it, and make him pay...' Sora grabbed hold of the chain and slowly pulled it over Skailer's head, then dangled the jewel in front of his eyes. And the guy who ordered it, this emperor...he must be the one behind this. I have to stop him, and I will. I have to.'

The gem felt warm, Skailer's half of a heart still inside of it. If Skailer can't be with us on this, then I'll make it so at least his heart can be with us.'

Sora slowly stood, then pulled the chain over his head, the warm gem hanging directly over his chest, where his heart should have been. If Skailer can't carry his heart...than I will for him.'

The Keybearer turned, and began to walk towards the double doors to the First Distract. "Come on guys." He said quietly, voice cracking despite his determined tone. "We're going to hunt down that man. And when we find him, he'll pay. And that emperor' of his? We're going to stop him."

* * *

And so ends Chapter Two. As of last night, Chapter Three has been begun. Have fun waiting for it!


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